


The Bodyguard and the Painter

by NrsAmethyst90



Category: Midnight Poppy Land (Webcomic)
Genre: Coming Out, Coming of Age, F/M, Falling In Love, First Time, First Time Sex, Friendship, Heartache, Love, Marriage, Romance, Sex, Sexy Times
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:34:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 23,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24419722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NrsAmethyst90/pseuds/NrsAmethyst90
Summary: ALL CHARACTERS BELONG TO MISS LILYDUSK FOR HER WEBCOMIC "Midnight Poppy Land" ON WEBTOONS. IM ONLY USING THEM FOR DAYDREAM PURPOSES. ANY SIMILARITIES ARE COICIDENCE OR INCIDENTAL. FOLLOW HER ON PATREON AND INSTAGRAM FOR AMAZING GOODIES............Poppylan Wilkes is turning twenty-one, and she has lots of dreams, wishes. But there's a problem with that. Number One, getting stoic Tora to stop treating her like a kid sister and notice her. ROMANTICALLY. The second and third problems with her wishes? Tora is her bodyguard and refuses to even call her by her name only, and then... she's expected to marry the Balthuman's only son and heir, Quincey who seems to not want anything to do with her romantically or physically at all.......
Relationships: Balthumans, Poppy Wilkes - Relationship, Poppy/Tora, Poppylan/Tora, Quincey Balthuman - Relationship, Tora - Relationship, Tora/Poppy
Comments: 93
Kudos: 133





	1. Say My Name

**Author's Note:**

> Watashi tachi ni naritakute- 
> 
> Dress You Up- Madonna 
> 
> CRUSH- Jennifer Paige 
> 
> Edge of Seventeen- Stevie Nicks

...

“ ** Good  ** morning, Tora! How are you today?”

“I’m good, Miss Wilkes. It’s good to see you’re doing well, too.”

“Tora, it’s just Poppy. You can call me Poppy.”

The tall, serious man in the suit looked at the short woman as she smiled at him, holding on to the door that he held open for her. She was a short and curvy little thing, always smiling, always trying to make conversation with him, even when he  wasn’t one to respond. She  didn’t mind. Frankly, Tora concluded that she was lonely in that big house of hers and  didn’t make friends that easily.

How? He  didn’t understand, since she was a chatty thing, always going on about one thing or another, and always surrounded by people whenever he dropped her off for her classes or picked her up. 

_ Acquaintances _ ,  she’d explain,  _ who know me for my money and not my personality. _

“Well?”

“It’s good to see you’re doing well,  _ Miss _ Poppy,” he said finally and  didn’t miss the quick look of defeat that crossed her features. “Now, come on, your first class starts at 9 o’clock. It’s already eight, and Wednesdays in the city seem to be one of the busiest days.”

“Yes, I suppose,” she said with a sigh as she climbed into the back seat of the sleek Mercedes and he shut the door behind her.

.

** Poppy ** was bored out of her mind. 

She was sitting in her third class of the morning and if she was honest with herself, she had zoned off after the first twenty minutes. Thank goodness it was a filler class for her, History of Jazz and Rock, that technically counted for her degree, but she  didn’t really care about if she failed it.

It was so easy that she found herself zoning it out most of the time.

She was also a little hurt and annoyed at the same time about what happened that morning with Tora.

Why didn’t he like her? He acted like if she was something smelly that he needed to keep away from, which was ridiculous as well because he was her bodyguard as well as personal driver. She pouted, resting her cheek on her hand as she stared blankly at the whiteboard. 

Every time that she tried to strike up a conversation,  he’d simply nod at her or grunt in response.  She’d keep talking because sometimes it was  simply better to fill the silence. She would  go crazy having to spend the forty-minute drive to school in silence. She already had a lot of that at home, especially the last couple  years since her parents’ business had boomed and they spent most of their time travelling, in and out of the country. If she thought about it, she probably spent more time around Tora than them.

Besides the people at school and Tora, she  didn’t have anyone to spend time with.

She’d rather spend time with Tora, at least he was honest with her and  didn’t try to befriend her for her money, title, or anything else related to that.

“Miss Wilkes.”

_ It just sucks _ , she concluded.  _ I wish that  _ _ he’d _ _ be more talkative. _

“Miss Wilkes!”

Poppy snapped out of her daydream and stared at the professor who was looking straight at her. 

“Are you done daydreaming, Miss Wilkes?” he asked as he glared at her from behind round-rimmed glasses that looked like they belonged to a grandfather in the seventies.

“I... was paying attention,” she squeaked, trying hard to not freak out and blush scarlet.

“Okay. In that case, care to tell me the name of the musician that’s playing right now?”

Poppy  blanched , praying to whomever could hear her that she  didn’t make a fool of herself. She listened intently to the piano playing, followed by trumpets, and grinned.

“Jelly Roll Morton, Sir.”

The professor squinted at her from behind the glasses before turning back to the board where he wrote his notes. “Now…as I was saying…”

Poppy sighed in relief before glancing down at her phone when it flashed with a new text message.

** Miss Wilkes, your mother called me back home to pick something up for you. **

** I’ll ** ** be back in time to pick you up from your last class. **

Poppy groaned. That  probably meant that her mother was going to make her meet up with them for lunch with some random client of theirs.  They’d gotten into this thing where  they’ve begun hinting at her that she was coming of age soon and should start looking into prospective marriage partners.

Because  apparently twenty-one was too old and if you missed your chance, you became a spinster at twenty-two.

Ugh.

She loved her parents, but they could be a little… too much sometimes.

** Can I skip?  ** ** I’ll ** ** tell her I have an exam to study for next period. **

She waited nervously for Tora to send back a response. She nearly dropped her phone when it vibrated with a new message.

** You can try, but you know what  ** ** she’s ** ** going to say. **

** This is important to them. **

Argh. Poppy pouted again, her heart sinking because she knew now that she was meeting someone, a prospective marriage partner. It wasn't even love. It  wasn’t dreams or imagination, a fairy tale. It was a business transaction.

She sighed and zoned out for the remaining of the class.

“Tell me again why I can’t skip this lunch?” 

Tora looked down at the girl who was holding on to the bag of clothes  he’d given her as if it  was something useless. She pouted, shoulders drooped, she looked as excited as a five-year  who’d gotten socks for Christmas.

“Because your parents said so and it’s important to them.”

“But what about me, Tora? Shouldn’t it matter to me as well? I don’t care about meeting up with random  stuffy old people who will only judge me on the way I act or look,” Poppy complained as Tora placed a hand on her shoulder and start guiding her towards to the gym again. “I don’t want to go. Especially not today.”

Tora shook his head at her, not that  she’d see it since she was walking in front of him. “Why especially not today?”

“You know why. You probably know more about today than I do.” Poppy planted her feet firmly on the ground, nearly toppling over when Tora’s hand kept pushing her. She glared back at him. “It’s not fair!”

“Life isn’t fair, Miss Wilkes,” he replied calmly as he took in her expression. “Now, what’s this about me knowing...what?”

“They’re trying to marry me off,” Poppy grimaced. “I’m not even twenty-one and they’re already trying to marry me off. If my fate is to marry and become some stuffy , rich old man’s trophy wife, what am I going to school for? It’s just a waste of time.”

Tora said nothing. Her mother had told him that he was to get Poppy to the restaurant on time because they had an important meeting with some clients. Already,  they’d wasted about ten minutes with Poppy  complaining, arguing, and trying to get him to drive her home instead.

He knew that she was right.  He'd also overheard her parents talking about who they were meeting today, the Balthumans, and how it was so that they could also meet their only son and heir, Quinceton. His jaw clenched at the sound of the name. It reminded him on some airhead blond kid  he’d met in college, Quincey B.  Noyouko .

“Tora,  pleeeasee !”

He glanced down at his arm where Poppy was clinging on to for dear life. Her wide eyes were desperate, and should he say... scared? Her pink lips were trembling  as if she was trying hard not to cry.

“Please, take me somewhere else. I  don’t want to marry anyone! Please!” she asked him in a shaky voice. It made him feel bad for her, having to see her freaking out.

Almost.

“I’m sorry, Miss Wilkes. I can’t disobey your parents,” he said finally and she clenched her hands around his arm before pushing away from him. She gave him one last teary look before marching into the gym to change into the new set of clothes.

He sighed and went back to a bench to wait for her.

.

_ Normally, parents want their daughters to dress more modestly than this _ , Poppy thought to herself as she stared at herself in the mirror in the locker room.  _ I suppose  _ _ it’s _ _ different for the ones that want to give their daughters away to the richest man. _

She huffed, trying to get the stupid top part of her dress to set into place. What was her mother thinking, buying such a thing for her? She felt naked!

Poppy pulled on the top part of her dress again and wished it would stay in place. She was going to have to be extra careful so her boobs  wouldn’t come flying out. The dress had looked simple enough when  she’d pulled it out of the bag and was happy that it looked long enough to fall to her knees,  an inch or two  lower , and had small draping sleeve s. It  wasn’t until she’d put it on and looked in the mirror that she’d realized how  wrong she’d been.

Yes, the sleeves fell nicely around her shoulders, the small strips of transparent lace  didn’t bother her, but... the deep V-neck in the front that fell a couple inches lower than her breasts freaked her out. Then she took a step and gaped when she noticed the high slit on the skirt part of it... If she made a wrong move, she was going to flash someone her vagina...and the lace strips that ran around the  waistline like a belt did nothing to hide her skin underneath.

What was her mother thinking?

Her phone rang and she saw that it was Tora.

“Hello.”

“Are you almost done? We really should be on our way already.”

“I’m having technical issues,” she sighed into the speaker as she swished her legs, trying to figure out how far she could open her legs without embarrassing herself.  She'd already had to take her bra off and let her girls swing free so she  wouldn’t show the bra beneath it. She was glad the dress had an extra protective  padding in the front, but it  didn’t really make her feel any better. 

“Do you need any help?”

She gaped at the phone, her face heating up instantly when she thought about him coming in here and trying to help her with this dress... Not fixing it up but taking it off. 

Oh  gawd .

“No,” she squeaked, clearing her throat before repeating the word again. “No. I’m fine.  I’ll fix my hair in the car. I’ll be right there.”

“Okay.”

She took the neat black strappy heels her mother had included in the gym bag out and put them on. Hooray. With the three inches of heels, she was now a good five feet four inches.

“Ugh.”

She grabbed her things and went out to meet Tora.

.

** Tora ** was still chuckling about Poppy’s response to his offer to help her with her ‘technical issues .’ He knew he  shouldn’t tease her, but sometimes it was so easy to do so. The worst, or best, part was that he was able to keep his face neutral and make it seem like he  hadn’t meant to tease her, that  he’d been serious about it.

He  didn’t do it often, but the random times  he’d done it, it had  flustered the young woman and turned her into a flushing, mumbling ball of nerves.

He chuckled again and tucked his phone into his pocket.

“Alright,  let’s go. I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Okay. Good, your Mother already text me back to see if we were on our… _ Way _ .” Tora blinked, momentarily struck by the person coming to stand in front of him.  He’d said the last word more as an exclamation, sounding  like one of those California Malibu surfers instead of his normal cool self. 

She bit her lip and hugged the bag of her things to her chest, hiding that piece of skin that had shocked him. Sure,  he’d seen her in her bathing suits before, considering  she’d been in the swim team and she lounged around the pool, but they were mostly one-piece suits, rarely two pieces. He had to be honest with himself that this dress managed to do what those skimpy suits had never done to him.

His fingers were itching.

She shuffled her feet nervously, leaning on one then the other, flashing him part of her thigh and he  nearly groaned . 

“Is it that bad?”

“What?” He cleared his throat and looked back at her, hoping  she’d missed his surprise.

“Is it that bad? I knew it! It makes me feel like a hussy,” Poppy cried angrily as she hugged her gym bag tighter to her chest. Her cheeks flushed bright red as she turned and started stomping away in the direction of the car. “I hate it. I  don’t like it, I feel naked. I hate my mother for this right now.”

Tora was surprised that she managed to stomp her way down the cement path and across the grass, considering how thin the heels on her shoes were. Her tiny toes with their soft pink acrylic color were doing things to him. He nearly smacked himself in the head to stop. He needed to stop. This was his boss’ daughter and she was out of his league, not an option, she wasn’ta choice for him to pick. . Besides, she was only a kid. He’d seen her grow up, for fuck’s sake, having started working with the Wilkes about six years ago when she was only fifteen. 

She was nothing more than a slightly chubby girl with braces and pigtails.

Braces and pigtails,  braces and pigtails. Braces and…

Pigtails… Ugh. Tora smacked himself in the face and followed quickly behind her.

He watched her yanked the door open and throw her bags into the backseat. She was muttering to herself when he caught up with her.

“Poppy?”

“Useless… Utterly demeaning…I suppose I’m some, some… cattle! For them to trade. Just a piece of meat,  that’s what I am. Now I know what those cows must feel. Sheesh… I’m becoming a vegetarian after this…” 

“Hey, Poppy?”

She stopped and turned to look at him. He  didn’t know why she was looking  surprised until it hit him that  he’d called her by her name. He shook his head quickly and cleared his throat. 

“Yes?”

“Ready?”

She turned around the whole way, she kept twisting her hands and fingers nervously. Finally, she smiled at him. “You called me by my name…”

He tried not to  flinch . This was weird. “Yes. I had to get your attention, Miss Wilkes.”

“Poppy!”

“ _ Miss _ Poppy,” he  stated firmly and scowled at the look of defeat on her face. “Why are you upset?”

“Because I hate it when you call me by… You know what? It  doesn’t matter. Call me whatever the hell you want, it’s not like I have a say in anything anyways,” Poppy  muttered as she turned around and slid into the backseat. She was so tired of everything and nothing  in particular that she  didn’t even care if  she’d flashed him. She slammed the door shut before he could close it for her.

She’d drawn up the divider between them when  he’d jumped into the driver’s seat.

He sighed and started the car because they were already way behind schedule.

.

Poppy fought against the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes. If anyone asked her how she was doing, she would start  bawling her eyes out .  She took a deep breath and held it for five seconds, as she tried to catch her bearings. 

She sighed and started looking through her bags for a hairbrush and immediately started doing her hair. Her mother wanted her to have an up-do to go with the dress, so she figured a high Ariana Grande style pony would do. She was so glad that  she’d grabbed the hairspray before leaving her house that morning as it came in handy now. She tried to calm her nerves and ease the turmoil in her heart as she continued to brush her hair. Her mother had even sent hair ties and clips for her.

When she was done, she put everything away and leaned her elbow against the door, resting her head on her palm as she stared out. She never noticed Tora glancing back at her though his rearview mirror.

.

_Melancholic_.

That’s what he would describe Poppy as. Tora watched the girl touch up her makeup and fix her hair high up, obviously making it tight enough to pull at her eyes and giving her an instant face lift. 

Now, she was staring out the window, a somber look on her face. He felt bad for teasing her earlier, even worse when she mentioned how she had no say in any matters. It was partly true, but he also knew that it was only partly true because her parents would listen to her.

If only she made up her mind and stood up to them.

But she didn’t . She went along with her mother’s ideas and agreed with whatever her father said. The only reason she was going to college for a business major was because her parents thought it would be a good idea and she’d be able to help in the future. The problem with that was, however, that she hated business, she hated math, and she hated the classes with a passion. She was an artist, loved to paint, to draw, to visit museums...but she would never dare to tell her parents that she didn’t want to go into business.

The only reason she passed her classes was because she was afraid to fail.

Tora sighed and rolled down the divider between them, noticing that she  didn’t so much as glance his way.

“Miss Poppy?”

“Hmm?”

“Are you okay?”

That finally got her to look his way and he wished he  hadn’t asked because the look she gave him was the coldest, unemotional look he had ever given him. “No. But it doesn’t matter.”

“You could tell them that you don’t want to do this, you know?” he told her as he signaled for the off ramp. “I’m sure that they’d understand.”

“Ha.” Tora frowned. “The future of the company and the family name rides on my shoulders. If I choose to not have anything to do with the company,  it’ll eventually end up in the hands of someone else who might not appreciate it as much as my parents do. I can’t let their baby, their blood and tears, go to waste.”

“But do you think that they’d prefer to see  _ their  _ real child suffer because of that?”

“It’s called responsibility, Tora. As for the family name,  it’s not such a unique name that  there’s no other like it on the world, but it means a lot to them, it means success. So, I suppose  it’s my duty to carry on the name. Better start popping out kids soon.” She said the last part with a short laugh that had Tora  scowling . He  didn’t like her like this. He pulled into the parking lot of the fancy restaurant, jumping out  immediately to open her door for her, but before she could get out, he leaned down to look at her.

“Do you really think that it’ll be better to finish getting a degree on a major you hate, for a job you won’t like, and live a life you don’t want? Someone else’s life?” he asked her as he stared at her. She had been surprised at seeing him poke his head in, nearly crashing into hers. 

She studied his face, the hard line of his jaw, the straight  nose, and dark eyebrows over golden eyes. The man was gorgeous.

And he thought of her as a kid. 

Poppy sighed and looked away from him. “It’s the least I could do. They’ ve  given me everything I could ever want.”

“Except you’re not happy,” Tora pointed out and she snapped her eyes to him with a frown. “Little Miss Poppy has everything she could possibly want... But , in reality, has nothing at all. No real friends, classes she hates, and no courage to call her parents out on it.”

“I don’t know what you’re playing at, bringing up all these things right now, especially right now. You know  I'm your boss’ daughter, don’t you?  That’s my father inside. Why are you  bringing this up ?” She swallowed hard, trying to calm the rising anxiety in her chest. “You’re only hurting me.” That last part  was said as a whispered rush.

“I don’t mean to hurt you. I want you to realize that you can do something about it,” Tora said as he reached for the hand in her lap. He tried not to notice how small and delicate it felt in his. She  didn’t say anything and she  didn’t look at him. “Come on, Miss Wilkes.”

“How can you talk about choices, options, when you won’t even give yourself a chance to call me by my name? I offered the choice, yet, you still call me … whatever. It seems a little contradicting and hypocritical.” 

“Because like you said, you’re my boss’ daughter, and with that comes respect. I can’t go around calling you anything else that your father would consider strange or too  _ friendly  _ from my part,” he tried to explain, hoping that she’d make up her mind so they could head inside. Her parents were  probably starting to get  angsty as well.

She finally looked up at him. “You used to clean my scraped knees when I'd fall out of trees or crashed into things,” Poppy started making his eyes go wide. “I’m sure that if my father thought you were anything else he wouldn’t let you continue to be my driver. You  won’t even respect my choice, my request, to have something so simple, so insignificant, as you calling me by my name. In the end,  you’re just another one of those people that  don’t know me. Making me feel even more alone.” She pushed his hand away, making him pull back and stand up straight, before sliding out by herself. She grabbed her purse and headed into the building leaving him staring a fter  her.

.

“ **Mother** , I don’t want to be here.”

“Yeah? Well,  let’s not have your father hear you say that. You know this is important to him,” the beautiful blonde woman hissed back at her son who fiddled uncomfortably with the tie at his neck. He hated ties, physically and emotionally, and  couldn’t remember the last time  he’d worn one— probably to his high school graduation about ten years prior.

“I just... you know how I feel about marriage,” the equally blond young man hissed back. He pulled at his tie again only to have his mother smack his hand away and fix it again. “I don’t want to get married. I  don’t want to have kids. I don’t want to be here.”

“ Quinceton Balthuman ,  you hush now.  You’re going to upset your father. You know why we’re here.” She gave his tie a good tug before turning away again. “And stop tugging on your tie. It’s fine.”

“It’s  constricting ,” he  muttered . “Like this whole situation.”

“Quincey...”

“Fine,” he sighed as he crossed his arms. “I just don’t know why—”

“Hello! Claire! How are you?”

Quincey and his mother stood up to greet the incoming couple. He watched his mother kiss the other woman – a  dark-haired woman—on the cheek. She shook hands with the man before turning to him. “Mary, Robert, this is my son,  Quinceton .  Quinceton , Mister and Missus Wilkes from the WilTech Company.”

Quincey shook hands with them, “Hello, there, nice to meet you.”

“Wow, you don’t look old enough to have an adult son,” Mary told Claire as she shook hands with the young man. Claire beamed, shrugging slightly before adding that she had started young. 

“Is your daughter not going to come over as well?” Claire asked, noticing that their daughter  wasn’t with them.

“She had college classes this morning, but her driver was going to bring her after her last class. She should be on her way right now,” Robert explained. “She doesn’t like to miss any classes and that’s why we set the time later.”

“Ah, I see.  That’s good  that’s trying to get an education,” Claire agreed. She pointed at Quincey who was trying  extremely hard to not look bored out of his mind. “He was a good student as well. He didn’t want to major in business, but at least he’s got a job.”

“Mother.” Quincey gritted out. That was embarrassing. It made it seem like he  wasn’t interested in the family business, which he  wasn’t , but she  didn’t need to tell the Wilkes that.

“I’m only stating facts, dear,” Claire said as she patted him on the arm, “But he graduated top of his class and now owns half of a publishing company.”

“Oh, is it a newspaper company?” Robert asked him.

“No. Books, literature. I’m an English and Literature Major and do a lot of content and online editing,” he explained. “I write as well, on the side, more as a hobby though.”

Not a hobby. That was his job, but he  wasn’t about to explain that to them or his mother. She would ask what kind of stories he wrote and go out and buy a copy and...  Yeah , his stories  weren’t exactly what  he’d hope to see his mother reading. Maybe if he  didn’t know she read them, but not as something that  he’d want to ACKNOWLEDGE she was into...

“Wow. That sounds like a lot,” Mary replied as she nodded. “Our Poppy wanted to go into art and  design but changed her mind and is now majoring in business.”

“She sounds smart,” Quincey said, but imagined that the girl was  some stuffy , nerdy  chit who would make fun of his major. The idea of meeting her right now was starting to give him anxiety.

“She’s a smart cookie, that one,” Robert agreed. “I just don’t know what’s taking her so long—”

“I’m here, Dad!”

They all turned to the  incomer and Quincey noticed a couple of things  at once .

One, she  didn’t look like a  stuffy kind of girl, but she did look like  she’d make fun of this major. She was beautiful, not that he wanted to hit on her, but that was about where all his attraction ended with the young woman.

Two, she looked young. How old was she again? He almost felt like he was robbing the cradle. He watched her kiss her parents on the cheeks before greeting his mother, and finally turning her eyes to him.

He stood up and took her hand, lifting it up to his mouth before kissing her knuckles. She gasped softly, staring at him with wide eyes.

Three, she was quite short, even with her heels, which meant that without them  she’d be about five feet only.

“I’m  Quinceton Balthuman, nice to meet you, Miss Poppy,” he said in that smooth voice he used for business purposes. He watched her blush and bite her lip nervously.

“Uh, Poppylan Wilkes. Nice to meet you.”

“And where did Tora go, honey?”

“Uh, I think parking the car?” Poppy replied, looking back at her mother. She glanced up and saw Tora talking to the  hostess . He pointed at the table and she waved at him, the  hostess immediately allowing him to enter the dining room towards them.

He carried a portfolio with him and as he got closer to the group, he frowned making Poppy frown because she  wasn’t sure why he was frowning. She  didn’t notice the blond man next to her tensing up.

“Ah! There you  are son!” Robert said when he noticed Tora appear. They shook hands and he turned to Claire and Quincey. “Claire,  Quinceton , this is my  very good friend, Tora. He’s Poppy’s current bodyguard and driver, but  he’s been with us for so long,  he’s like part of the family. Tora, this is Claire and  Quinceton Balthuman .”

“Nice to meet you, Mrs.  Balthuman ,” Tora replied with a small bow. His eyes met the nervous ones of the blond man across the table. “Nice to see you again, Quinceton.”

Poppy finally saw the twitch in Quincey’s jaw as he stared back at Tora.

“Err, nice to see you again, man,” he said before pulling a seat for Poppy to sit down. She eyed them suspiciously. She wanted to know what was going on there. How did they know each other? From where? Oh, she would  be having a conversation with Tora on the way back home.

“Oh, you two know each other?” Mary asked as she glanced back at Tora. He simply nodded as he handed Robert the portfolio.

“Yeah. College. Briefly.” He turned back to Robert and Mary. “Well, if you’ll excuse me.  I’ll get going. I have some things to do. Call me when  you’re ready for me to pick up Miss Wilkes. She has that afternoon class remaining.”

“Yes, of course. Thank you, son,” Robert said as Tora nodded to Claire and Quincey before turning on his heel and walking away.

“He’s something else,” Claire murmured once he was out of  earshot . “Wow. I bet he makes a great bodyguard! With that presence of his he can get anybody running before he even does anything!” she proclaimed  in reference to his serious and stoic demeanor. Quincey just stared at her. He  wasn’t sure this meeting would end well, especially with Tora involved. He was  sure that this was a terrible, terrible idea.

Poppy studied Quincey and saw how nervous  he’d become in Tora’s presence. She really wanted to know what was going on there!! She needed to know!

“Okay, so here are some of the things we talked about earlier over the phone...” Robert  started, and Poppy dragged her eyes off Quincey to what her father was saying.

_ There is no fucking way that Poppy was going to marry that man _ , Tora told himself as he climbed back into the car and started pulling out of the parking spot.

If the Wilkes were looking to marry off their daughter and have her pop out any heirs  soon, they were looking in the wrong spot. If he  was right, which he was sure he was, Quincey would never touch Poppy, much less to try to make any Wilkes babies. That man was a lot of things, but Tora  couldn’t remember the last time that  he’d seen or heard of him dating a girl in college. 

Babies, carrying out the family name, keeping the company and making her parents proud –  all those things that Poppy had explained to him earlier would be moot if she went along with what her parents wanted, if she married Quincey.

Tora needed to figure out this situation, and he needed to figure it out fast.

….


	2. Choices

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Choices, choices, choices... And none of them for Poppy herself.  
> ....  
> ALL CHARACTERS BELONG TO MIS LILLYDUSK FOR HER WEBCOMIC- MIDNIGHT POPPY LAND.  
> CHECK OUT HER PATREON FOR AWESOME GOODIES ;)  
> ..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ARE YOU HAPPY NOW? - Michelle Branch  
> I HATE THIS PART- The Pussycat Dolls  
> I'LL STILL HAVE ME- cyn  
> WHEN I WAS OLDER- Billie Eilish

**…**

** <5 years ** **ago** ** > **

**Fate** had been good to him. 

There was no other way or reason that he could be here with a good job if it wasn’t fate. 

He figured it was a decent job—the pay was great, his boss was nice, and he got to live in his own place on a small house, still on the property, but separate from the main house with paid everything. He'd gotten a brand-new cell phone, uniforms which were technically just black suits (which was fine with him) and got to drive around in a fancy car that he could’ve only ever dreamt of. 

Not bad for a kid off the system with juvenile hall records in his past and no real parents to speak of. 

He had an aunt by marriage, Alice, who had finally smacked some sense into him when she’d found him, talked him into staying at her place and going back to school. It was hard, but he’d gotten his GED, gotten into college to keep Alice happy, did a couple years and... 

Here he was now and there was no going back. 

Well, he was now a twenty-one year old guy, college grad with an Associate's degree in Natural Sciences—which technically meant nothing really unless he did something to further that degree—and no idea of where life was going to take him next. 

The Wilkes, his new bosses, had taken everything in stride—his past didn’t seem to bother them at all—and offered him the job on the spot. They said they knew how it was to come from nothing, knew the struggle to survive and see a change. Tora stared at the pamphlet in his hand that he’d been given. It was for a college in the city with a transfer program to the university. 

“We can help you go back and finish your degree if you want,” Robert Wilkes had told him as they sat down in one of the studies in the house. “Mary and I wouldn’t want your brain to go to waste. A straight ‘A’ student in college? That’s impressive. There is much more in this life that you can do besides working as a driver, not that we don’t appreciate you, son.” 

“We do appreciate you, we do,” his wife, Mary, agreed with a nod of her head. “But I know you have potential and we wouldn’t want you to feel obligated to stay here forever when you could do remarkable things out there, for yourself.” 

“Think about it, Tora. All we ask is that you do well in school, and we’ll be willing to pay for the fees, the books, whatever’s necessary.” 

Tora frowned, feeling slightly nervous. This felt almost unreal... like a dream. A couple of millionaires offering to pay him to go back to school for whatever he wanted to do? Whaaat? This surely was a dream and he would soon wake up and it would come crashing down. 

“I don’t... understand,” he finally said as he looked up at the couple. 

“You don’t have to feel obligated to do so. The offer will stand for as long as you need it, but we’re not going to make you go to school if you don’t want to. Don’t feel, in any way whatsoever, that you have to go to school for us. Do it for yourself.” Robert explained as he shuffled through some papers. He handed a couple to Tora to sign and put them away carefully in a portfolio once it was done. “Now, there is one more person I'd like you to meet.” 

“Oh.” 

Mrs. Wilkes stood up and walked out of the room only to come back with a frown on her face. She shook her head, tapping her chin with a finger. “She’s not in her room.” 

Robert sighed and turned to Tora. “I guess we’re taking a small tour of the house and the grounds. Come on, Tora. This should be interesting.” 

Tora stood and followed the couple out of the study and down a long hallway. The house wasn’t extravagantly big like some other ones he’d seen, but anyone with good sense could tell that they were loaded. They didn’t flaunt their money, their status, or their home, just acted... normal. Like any other normal couple in their forties would. 

They pointed out the rooms, the bathrooms, the dining room, etc... Showed him around the library, a small playroom they had, a theater room... And five bedrooms, not including the master bedroom. Shit. Never mind. They were loaded loaded. 

They popped out the back door through the huge sleek kitchen and onto part of the backyard. 

“We’ll come back around the car garage, but I want to see if we can find Poppy.” 

Poppy? Was that a dog? Puppy? Tora shrugged and didn’t ask. 

“I would keep your eyes peeled, and watch your head,” Mary started as he looked about the huge open backyard. It was more like a damn forest, thought Tora as he took in the lush foliage. There was a pond on the side, there were willows and all sorts of hedging everywhere, delicately placed no doubt, to give it a calming and pleasing appearance. Off to one side, there were a couple of rows of trees... A miniature orchard. 

“I wonder where she...” 

Why they didn’t just whistle and have the puppy come to them was beyond him. Maybe it wasn't trained to listen to the commands yet. Surely, the puppy would not get completely lost in this small forest... 

They reached the line of trees and Tora finally noticed that they were apple trees. 

“What do you do with all the apples?” 

“Poppy takes them with her when she goes tutor at the local school.” 

Okay, weird. Was puppy not a puppy? Tora was confused. 

“And who is this puppy again?” he asked finally because it was not making any sense. 

“ _Poppy_ , not puppy,” Robert chuckled. “She’s our little accident prone da—” 

“LOOK OUT!” someone screamed, giving Tora just enough time to glance up and see a blur of pink falling over his head from the tree. 

“Poppy!” 

“Uggh...” 

Tora tried to catch his breath slowly. His chest was hurting and it was probably from the lump that was on top of him. He wiggled his legs—good they were working. Fingers, check. Head, check. He finally opened his eyes when he got a mouthful of hair. 

Sputtering, he sat up quickly, still holding on to the lump in his arms. 

It groaned. He moved the hair away from his face and came face to face with a set of caramel-colored eyes that started to widen when they finally saw his face. 

“Poppy!” Mary sighed again as she made to grab her daughter’s hand. 

Tora continued to stare at the eyes that had not moved away from his own. They dropped briefly, to her nose, her mouth—her lips, little pink things —and finally up to her blushing cheeks and back up to her eyes again. 

Poppy was not a puppy. It was a she, and … 

“Dang it, Poppy, how many times have I told you to stop climbing the trees?” Robert asked the girl as he held Mary lift the girl up by her arms and set her to her feet. Mary began fussing over the girl, checking her arms, her head, while Robert helped Tora to his feet and apologized. “Sorry, Tora, I didn’t think that she’d be falling over you. This girl never learns.” 

Tora shook his head. “It’s alright, Sir. I’m fine. Is she okay though?” Both men turned to look at the women—Mary still fussing over the girl who kept trying to push her hands away unsuccessfully. 

“Mom, mom. Mom! I’m fine! I’m not hurt. Maybe my ego, but nothing serious. Mom!” 

“Let me, Poppylan Wilkes, or so help me!” Mary said in a stern voice that got the girl groaning. She let her mother fuss over a scratch on her elbow and lifted her eyes to her father and... Her breath caught. 

**He** was the most... Cute? No, that word was too ridiculous for the guy standing next to her father. Handsome? That word made her blush. Beautiful seemed dramatic, but... There was something about the man that told her it was _exactly right_. 

She ignored her mother and stared at the tall man, his dark hair with the styled haircut that was longer at the top and fell messily to the side. His strange eyes—were they yellow? No. Golden, honey? No. It reminded her of cat eyes, and that way that he stood still, and observant gave her the feel that she was standing as a prey before a predator. 

He was a beautiful man. Tall, a couple shades darker than her father, and buff. He looked fairly young, but she knew he had to be at least twenty-one for her parents to hire him, and... she hoped that they had hired him. He was currently standing there wearing dark jeans, a dark olive-green button-up shirt that he had rolled up to his forearms and dress shoes. 

Oh, god. She hoped that they had hired him. 

She hissed when her mother pressed at a spot on her waist that she knew was a bruise from where she’d fallen down the last couple steps two days ago. She hadn’t told anyone and now her mother had discovered it as she pulled her top up revealing her waist and... love handles. 

“Mom!” Poppy cried out as she yanked down the side of her top down over her shorts. She looked at her Mother and found her scowling. 

“Poppylan, just how in the hell did you get that giant bruise on your side?” 

“I fell,” she said primly, trying to hide her embarrassment. She was fifteen years old and sometimes they treated her as if she were only five. Oh, god... And in front of a stranger, no less. 

“Fell where?” 

Poppy glanced up briefly at the guy and dropped her gaze as she looked away. “Down the stairs...?” she mumbled softly. What a klutz! Her mother groaned. 

“And you didn’t think to tell us? That could be a bruised kidney!” Mary pointed out. 

“It doesn’t hurt unless I press on it. Which I don’t.” 

“You’re going to give me a heart attack...” 

**Robert** turned away from his arguing wife and daughter to Tora who was staring at them in amusement. “That would be my daughter, Poppylan. She’s fifteen.” 

Tora nodded. He wasn’t sure if Robert had added the age as an afterthought or a warning. Either way, he wasn’t one to get in trouble at work, especially not now that he’d found an employer he liked and that liked him back. His last employer... had been a total train wreck he wished to forget, although it was hard when the physical reminders remained on his skin. 

He had been a foolish teenager. 

“She seems... Like she’s got a mind of her own,” Tora commented as he continued to watch the interaction between mother and daughter. Poppylan Wilkes, although she was fifteen, didn’t seem that age. In fact, she looked a little younger even. She was on the shorter side and whatever her height was it appeared was made up mostly of legs. The shorts she was wearing and the pink baggy t-shirt—which looked like something you got at a fair or Circus Circus—with rainbow graffiti-style lettering made her seem younger than fifteen. There were no real curves to speak of and if it wasn’t for the shorts and her hair, he would have thought she was a boy from far away. All that and the black Vans skater shoes she was wearing. Did she even... 

Her face, though, her face screamed out female. She was pretty, he would give her that, but apparently also pretty reckless. 

She was nothing more than a child. 

“Oh, yeah, definitely does. She's quite a handful. We hired you because, well because we need someone to take her to school and her after school activities. Usually, Mary or I would do that, but we’ve been getting busier and need someone from home that we can trust.” 

Tora glanced back at the girl who had her head thrown back in a groan as her mother went on and on about acting like a ‘young lady’ and how she was like a ‘bull in a China shop’. 

“Alright. I don’t see a problem. She seems easy to handle.” 

“You just have to be firm with her. She’s a good kid, just a little crazy every once in a while. Don’t let her appearance fool you, she’s not _as_ reckless and irresponsible as she seems. She knows when she’s messed up, and how to avoid messing up. Come on, let’s go back to the house so we can talk this over.” 

Tora nodded and followed after Mary and Poppy who was doing a lot of sighing. 

Later, when they had finished going over the details of working as Poppy’s driver, Tora turned to Poppy who was busy drawing on a tablet while her parents talked with him. 

“Say, you never did say what you were doing in that tree... What were you doing?” 

Poppy looked up from the tablet and met him head on, caramel eyes meeting golden ones. “There was a cat stuck in a branch. I was trying to get it down. Except, it turned out he was just minding his own business, climbed down easily by himself, and left me there.” 

Tora blinked. And blinked. And blinked once more before he started shaking his head and laughed softly. He turned to her parents. “I’ll try to make sure she doesn’t fall off any more trees.” 

Mary shook her head. “Good luck to you. Trust me, you’ll need it.” 

Poppy rolled her eyes and went back to her tablet... 

.. 

** <the present?> **

**After** dropping Poppy off with her parents, Tora headed back downtown to the university. He had an exam to take and he’d already missed it due to work and something else that had come up. 

Thank goodness his professor was a nice older woman who had taken a liking to him. She told him that she would make an exception for him, but only because she knew that he was studious and hardworking and because he hadn’t missed a single day of class until he had to ask for it. One time. 

Once he got the school and found a parking space away from other cars to avoid any scratches on his own, he pulled off his jacket and draped it over the passenger seat. He rolled up his sleeves, but only far enough. He still chose to cover the tattoos that lingered there... On his forearms and pretty much all over both arms, chest and back. The circular tattoo on the left side of his neck was hidden behind the fall of his inky black hair which he had let grow out during the last seven years. Hidden under his hair and thick Dermacol concealer. 

He didn’t mind the sleeves and other tattoos on his body, but the one that still made him think twice about his safety was the one on his neck, and he’d gotten enough stares and glares from the public for it to keep wanting anymore. 

No thanks. 

He was still a little iffy about getting it covered or removed, but he wanted to make up his mind about it. It was a piece of his past that he wished to forget, but also a piece that he wanted to keep as a reminder of what was once and that he should not repeat... 

Crazy, right? 

He grabbed a binder from the back seat, checked his neck once more and got out of the car. 

He knew the stares that he got from the women around him. 

He was used to them. Occasionally, one would muster up the courage and approach him. He didn’t really have a lot of time for women—sure he was a man with needs—but he also didn’t let said needs control his life. Besides, he had hands, didn’t he? 

He made his way quickly across the black top and headed towards the science building for his exam. 

.. 

< **lunch** >

**Poppy** didn’t know what to say. She felt uncomfortable, she felt exposed and kept pulling at the sides of the dress to keep it in one place, but the opening kept sliding open. 

Mumbling, she yanked on her dress again, looking up at the adults to make sure that no one was seeing her, and they weren’t. They were too busy going over business items to notice the odd girl out. She pulled her phone out and sent Tora a quick text. 

An angry face emoji followed by one with a tear. 

He read the message but didn’t respond. 

Bastard. 

Still grumbling, Poppy looked up and found herself being stared at by the blond guy, Quinceton. 

_What a ridiculous name_ , she thought to herself, but said nothing. 

He raised his eyebrows at her and gave their parents a look, then looked back at her. He pulled out of a pen out of his pocket, scribbled something on a napkin and slipped it across the table to her. Surprised, she pulled the napking closer and saw a number on it. 

She frowned and gave him a questioning look. He tapped on his phone with a finger. 

Ahh. 

Why would he want her number? Eh, whatever. If she was going to have to marry this dude, might as well get to know him. He wasn’t ugly, she just wasn’t interested. 

She sent him a quick text, watching his phone light up before he looked at it. 

**P:** Are you as bored as I am?

She hoped that wouldn’t offend him. He grinned and responded.

 **Q:** probably even more so. I'm sorry that you had to be dragged into this.  


Well, that was surprising. Poppy raised her eyes to Quincey and he shrugged.  


**P** : Did you... get dragged here as well?

 **Q** : Yes. I don’t mean to offend, but I don’t want this

Poppy could feel her cheeks heating up. Heart pounding, she typed quickly

 **P:** No worries! OMG. Me neither! I’m not ready for marriage!

 **Q:** How old are you if you don’t mind me asking <(^_^)>

 **P:** 20... will be 21 soon. Bday coming up.

 **Q:** (O_O) you’re so young. You're a baby!!! X_X  


Poppy gave a short laugh, making her mom turn and give her a look before going back to the conversation.  


**P** : uh, thanks?? 

**P:** How old are YOU? 

**Q** : 26. 

**P** : Damn.   


**Q** : Damn right.

 **Q** : Wanna get out of here?  


Poppy raised her eyes in surprise at Quincey and nodded towards their parents who were still unaware of what they had been doing.  


**P** : How do you suppose we do that?  
**P** :my mom won’t let me  


**Q** : Leave it to me.  
**Q** : I’m a master of persuasion  


Poppy snorted out loud, earning herself another look from her mom.  


**P** : Ok, master of persuasion.

 **P** : I leave her to you.

 **P** : Good luck 😀  


Poppy waited as Quincey put his phone away and cleared his throat. He cleared it louder and caught the adults’ attention. 

“Hey, I'm sorry to be a bother. But I just got a message from one of my managers. I’m needed back at work for some signatures.” 

Claire gave her son a look. “But Quincey, what about lunch?” 

“I apologize mother, but this is important. We have been working on a project and my attention is needed. We’re on a deadline to meet.” 

“But —” 

“Claire, it’s alright, we can do this another time,” Mary said with a pat on Claire’s hand. “I think we got a little sidetracked with work stuff. It’s not a problem whatsoever.” 

“Would you look at the time!” Poppy said with a clap of her hands. “Dad, it’s almost time for me to get back to my last class.” 

“Let me get Tora to come pick you up,” Robert said as he started to pull his phone out. 

“Oh! It’s alright. I can give her a lift to school,” Quincey offered as he shot Poppy a quick look. 

“Err, I... Really?” 

“Yes. Really?” 

“Sweetheart, we don’t want to impose you with—” 

“No worries, Mrs. Wilkes. It’s not a problem. I can drop her off on my way to work. Besides,” he started and gave Poppy a look that had her blushing. What the... “What better way to get to know each other, right?” 

The women gaped at him, and finally, Robert cleared his throat. “I suppose so... But no funny business.” 

Poppy shook her head. “Of course not, Dad.” 

“Thank you so much, dear,” Mary said as he came around and shook hands with her and Robert. He gave his mother a quick kiss on the cheek and stretched his arm out for Poppy to take. 

“Thank you for lunch. It was lovely to meet you, Mrs. Balthuman,” Poppy said as she gave the woman a brief hug as well. “Until we meet again.” _Or not_ , thought Poppy. 

“Very nice to meet you as well, dear. Have a good class!” Claire said as he waved at them. Poppy had stuck her arm into Quincey’s and they both made their escape before their parents changed their mind.

**Once** they were outside, away from prying eyes, they stopped, looked at each other and started laughing. 

“OH MY GAWD,” Quincey said in between snorts. “That was intense.” 

“I have to give it to you, Quinceton. I didn’t trust you at first, but you just went in for the kill,” Poppy giggled happily. 

“Quincey. Just call me Quincey. Quinceton is a stuffy asshole with a stick up his a—sorry.” Quincey blushed when he realized how rude he was being in front of her. 

“No worries. I’m glad that’s over. Thank you for saving me Quincey!” Poppy gave his arm a little squeeze as they sighed in relief. “Alright, now what? I don’t have class until like four. It’s barely two.” 

“Well, if you want, we can walk around a little then call an Uber to go drop you off,” Quincey said. 

“Well, I'd love to walk around, but these things are going to kill me,” Poppy said as she stuck a foot out and pointed at the heels on her feet. “They’re digging into my foot even now.” 

“How about...” Quincey tapped his chin for a moment. “Okay, how about a park. We can go get some ice cream and go hang out at the park or something.” 

“I love ice cream,” Poppy agreed. 

“Okay, I know a little shop down this way,” Quincey pointed down the street. “Around the corner. Maybe like a block or so. Will you be okay with walking that far?” 

“Oh, that’s fine. As long as I can sit down afterwards. Lead the way, good Sir.” 

Arm in arm for support, Quincey and Poppy made their way down the street. 

“ _ **So**_ you’re almost done with your degree?” 

“Well, my Associates. But I have enough classes and credits to transfer to the university for business degree. After that, I’ll see about what else I can for my business degree.” 

“Your parents must be so proud that you’re following in their footsteps,” Quincey pointed out as he took a small spoonful of his ice cream. 

They were sitting in a small ice cream shop two blocks over from where they’d left their parents. Quincey said he liked this place because it was always full of interesting people and it was also a place that his parents would never think to look for him. It was like his secret place. 

Poppy glanced around and saw couples sitting together enjoying their ice creams and wondered if people assumed they were together as well. That made her frown. She didn’t want that association. Not that he wasn’t good to look at … just... 

“Yeah, they’re proud, I suppose,” she started as she sighed and glanced back at Quincey. “I’m their only child, so it’s pretty exciting that I follow what they do.” 

Quincey thought for a moment. She didn’t sound so happy about that. She reminded her of someone who had been in the same boat as her... 

Oh, right. Him. 

“You don’t sound very happy,” he pointed out and watched her brows crease, but didn’t say anything. 

“They’re proud of me,” she repeated, but it sounded like she was trying to reassure herself that instead of affirming that it was true. 

“But are you happy?” 

Poppy sighed and looked at Quincey. 

“You’re the second person who’s asked me that today. Is it so obvious?” 

Quincey shrugged. “A little. And really? Who was the other person?” 

“Tora, my driver,” Poppy said with a disgruntled look on her face. She crossed her arms and leaned back against the cushiony booth and stared out the large glass panel. “He told me that I should decide what I want to do for myself instead of finishing something that I'll hate for the rest of my life.” 

“Well, he’s not wrong,” Quincey agreed as he sat back as well. 

“Hmm,” Poppy thought back to Tora’s face so close to hers when he had leaned down to speak to her. The man was a giant blazing light that she knew she should avoid but kept calling her like a moth to a flame. And she was going to end up burned. “Say, Quincey... How do you know Tora?” 

“Err.” His nervous sound had Poppy turning back to him. He was scratching his elegantly styled hair nervously. “From school. College.” 

Poppy raised an eyebrow at that. “Oh. College.” 

“Yeah, college. W-why do you look so surprised?” 

Poppy shrugged. Maybe because she was surprised that Tora had gone to college. It wasn’t like the man was dumb, oh no, he was highly intelligent. Just... Why was he working as a driver if he was smart? It wasn’t a demeaning job, just... wouldn’t he want to work as something else if he had the opportunity. 

“I’m just surprised that if he went to college, why is he working as a driver now?” 

“Maybe he changed his mind about what he wanted to do?” 

Poppy shrugged. “Yeah, maybe. I also have another question,” Poppy started as she rested her chin on a hand. “Why did it seem like that there was some... tension between you and Tora? Do you guys have a bad past or?” 

“Uh,” Quincey wasn’t sure how to answer that. Yeah, he knew Tora from before, but there was also a part of his life before working for the Wilkes that he’d most likely kept from Poppy. It seemed like there was a barrier, a wall between those two, and that Tora kept his relationship with Poppy specifically as boss and driver, nothing else. 

It wasn’t his business to tell Poppy. 

And it was also embarrassing... because Quincey felt like an idiot... 

“Quincey? What’s wrong?” 

“Well, you see... It’s actually kind of an embarrassing story,” he started as he gave her a look. She raised her eyebrows and her eyes widened in interested surprise. 

“For you or him? Ooh, do tell?” 

“Well...” 

**_It was another chilly morning, so cold it had actually snowed overnight. Not snow-snow, but there was still a good inch or two of snow everywhere making it hard for those not used to the weather—like him—to walk around without nearly breaking their necks every step or two._ **

****

****

_He had to admit it did look pretty though._

_Like a WInter Wonder Land, he thought with a chuckle._

_Quincey made his way across campus as quickly and as safely as he could. He tried to avoid the small dips and hills in case he slipped. He specially did not want to end up on his ass today, not with the jeans he was wearing. They were his favorite since they made his ass look nice._

_Layered with an undershirt, a t-shirt, a hoodie, another jacket over that, and a pair of Carhartt thermal socks and boots he’d borrowed from his next door dorm neighbor, he hurried along, hoping that he wouldn’t be late to class. He'd already been late twice due to missing his alarm and the instructor had gotten mad at him. In his defense, it wasn’t entirely his fault. His father had made him come out to business dinners —that he’d hated every minute of—and gotten back to his dorm late into the night. On top of that, he had homework he’d forgotten about and had to do that before going to sleep. It was almost three in the morning when he’d finally been able to climb into bed._

_“Freaking California weather, all bipolar and shit,” Quincey muttered to himself as he tried to get his nose to warm up. He couldn’t even feel it. Every breath he took and exhaled formed a little cloud in front of him. “Why couldn’t I have gone somewhere sunny like Florida, or fun like New York, or... Hawaii! Duh, Quinceton, duh. I’m going to look into schools in Hawaii when I get back to the dorm,” he muttered through shivering lips._

_He thanked his lucky stars once he made it to the arts building in once piece and in time to slip into his seat before the instructor arrived._

_“Late night again, QUINCETON?”_

_Quincey scoffed and shot his neighbor a look. “Homework. What’s your excuse, CANDY?”_

_The slender girl with bubblegum pink hair shuffled her hair and looked at her nails._

_“A date. Unlike some boring ass people with boring ass, stuffy old people names. FYI, I meant you.”_

_“I’m not a ho,” he shrugged. He gave her a once over and saw that she was only wearing a hoodie, jeans, regular boots, and no other jacket in sight._

_“What?”_

_“I guess that what that meme says is true.” He smirked and gave her a pointed look. “A thot is never cold.”_

_Candy flipped him the bird and got her canvas and paints ready._

_“You’re just jealous 'cause you’re a pussy. It's not even that cold. You’re going to be dying under all those layers. You just wait,” she pointed out before turning to the middle of the room where the instructor was explaining what they were doing today._

_“Uh huh. Whatevs."_

_They both stared at the instructor as she went on about the importance of learning about the body and anatomy. How the body was a beautiful landscape of natural dips and curves. Quincey and Candy looked at each in realization that they were going to..._

_“We’ll be having a guest today. A nice gentleman who decided to help us out. Now, I don’t want you to start acting weird or make him feel uncomfortable. You are adults, you need to act responsible and be mature about this class. If you cannot do that, I will kick you out until you can pull yourselves together. Got it?”_

_A chorus of agreement rang out._

_“Okay, so like I was saying, the human body is a beautiful landscape. This is a good opportunity we will be enjoying today. You will be working on detail and shadows. I want to see that you guys take this chance to work on proportions as well. You will be working with pencil. Okay, please greet our assistant today, and be respectful. Tora, can you come in please.”_

_Quincey and Candy turned to the side door where a tall, lean young man came through. He gave everyone a small wave, but nothing else, not even a smile, as he came to stand next to the instructor. She spoke to him for a moment and assisted him in settling on to a raised platform in the middle of the classroom._

_Quincey turned to Candy who was whispering back at him. “I bet you he is going to be gorgeous. Holy Molly... I bet you he’s... Those eyes of his. Ah...”_

_“You have until the end of the class to work on your sketches. I’ll be coming around assisting you if you need help.”_

_She said something to Tora who nodded and as she turned and started walking away, he dropped the bathrobe he was wearing and took a pose._

_“O.M.GEE.”_

Candy is going to pass out, Quincey thought to himself as he listened to the girl commenting on the guy. 

_Sure, the guy was hot, but there was another thing that caught his attention as he did an overall check on him to decide what he was going to start drawing._

_The tattoos on his arms and the circular tattoo on his neck. He couldn’t figure out where he’d seen this dude, but as soon as he’d seen that circular tattoo, he’d known exactly when and where._

_His father’s office about five years prior when he’d gotten sworn into the family business and …_

_Shit._

_He had been young, but Quincey would never forget those cold, emotionless eyes that had watched him through the whole tattooing process. He had hated it, hated it being there, having to watch his father whom everyone thought was just another regular businessman doing that to those men, to that kid._

_Shit._

_And now, here was a piece of Quincey’s past that he’d run away from, staring straight back at him with those same cold and golden eyes that reminded him of a tiger... Duh, Tora the Tiger of Ares Street._

_“What are you staring at so hard, you creep?” Candy hissed at him. “Start drawing something before the Coo Coo lady gets on your ass again about some shit.”_

_Quincey looked away from Tora and back to his blank Canvas. His hands were trembling as he picked up his pencils and started sketching. He really didn’t want to be looking at Tora. It made him feel... it made him nervous._

_“I just knew that he was going to be so damn hawt,” Candy murmured with a sigh. She peeked at him around the canvas, going back to sketching him. “Those arms... Those tattoos. I wouldn’t mind getting down and dirty with that one... Damn. Those legs... And that... Mmm.”_

_“Calm down, jeez,” Quincey hissed at her as he started sketching his head. He was going to sketch everything except that man’s giant... uh._

_“You’re just jealous,” Candy said as she openly eyeballed Tora’s junk and went back to sketching it. “That you don’t have one like that.”_

_“How would you know? You haven’t even seen it.”_

_“I don’t need to. I just know.”_

_“You Ho.”_

_“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Someday, that man’s going to be mine,” Candy said as they kept doing their sketches..._

_Quincey decided that he was going to keep his eye out for this guy on campus. Especially knowing that he knew who his father truly was._

**_Poppy stared at Quincey with bright, wide eyes._**

**__**

“Poppy?” 

**__**

“Are you telling me that you’ve seen Tora _naked_!?” 

**__**

Quincey’s brows raised in surprise as well. That wasn’t really what he was expecting her to get from the story, but he supposed it was hard to miss since he had explained he had posed nude. 

**__**

Poppy was biting her lips nervously, her hands in front of her as she gripped her bowl of ice cream to death. A few of the other patrons in the lobby stared at them at her exclamation. 

**__**

He frowned in confusion... Then it hit him. 

**__**

“You like him!” Quincey stated as he pointed a finger at her, making her sputter and flush bright red. 

**__**

“I-I do not!” 

**__**

“Yes, you do! Why are you asking if I've seen him nude then?!” 

**__**

“Because you’re saying you did! I’m only questioning it because it doesn’t seem like something that he would do! He’s way too serious to do something like that!” Poppy pointed out, still resembling a tomato. 

**__**

Oh, dear lord. She raised her hands to her cheeks, feeling how hot they were. Oh my god. Tora naked. Nude. Nude male model. OH MY GOD. 

**__**

How she wished she hadn’t been just like a teen back then. She didn’t know what to think—well, she did know what to think. She thought it was quite scandalous and, and... And she wished she could've seen that! 

**__**

“You’re still thinking about it!” Quincey pointed out with a gleeful laugh. “Haha! Poppy girrrl, you’ve got the hots for him!” 

**__**

“I do not not!” Poppy retorted. If she blushed any more, she was going to combust. 

**__**

Quincey chuckled, looking absolutely pleased with himself. Finally, he sighed and leaned back against the chair again. He hadn’t told her the part about Tora and the tattoos and his father. He wanted to keep that private. It wasn’t his business but... 

**__**

“So, how long have you had a crush on him?” 

**__**

Poppy snapped her eyes to her blond companion and made a face. 

**__**

“I do n—Argh!” She threw her hands to her face and groaned. “Fine. I do. I do think he’s a handsome man and just... He thinks I’m a kid!” 

**__**

Quincey had to shake his head at this. It was the weirdest conversation to be having with the woman he was supposed to be courting because they were supposed to be marrying in the future. Did it bother him that she was in love with the other guy? No. Sadly, his tastes ran in all sorts of wild directions and none of those paths led to him marrying a woman at the moment. 

**__**

“I just can’t believe I'm having this conversation with you. It’s so embarrassing!” she groaned again and lifted her eyes to him. “Please, I’m sorry. Can we not bring this up with my parents! They would get so upset!” Quincey reached out and took her hand in his. 

**__**

He scowled. “Heck no. Do you think my mother would be happy with me for not caring that you have the hots for another man? My dad would kill me.” 

**__**

“I don’t want to get married!” Poppy whispered, her eyes worried. “It’s not you, Quincey. I can tell you’re a great guy, but I just can’t!” 

**__**

“Is it because of Tora?” 

**__**

“No. I just refuse to be married off to some guy simply because my parents want it.” 

**__**

“I completely agree and understand that, too.” Quincey studied her face, her eyes for a sign of... “Would you marry if it was Tora?” 

**__**

Poppy gasped and flushed. Her eyes dropped to her lap. “I-I... don’t think I want to be married. Besides, I doubt my parents would be too happy with that either.” 

**__**

“Because it’s Tora.” 

**__**

“Don’t get me wrong, they love the guy. They just... have plans for me.” 

**__**

“Which don’t include any of your choices and decisions.” 

**__**

“They want the best for me.” 

**__**

“But you’re not happy!” Quincey pointed out, making her sigh. 

**__**

“It’s my responsibility, Quincey! I can’t just...run away!” 

**__**

“So, you’re saying that you’d rather live a sad, lonely life that you don’t want as long as your parents are happy? I’m sorry, but I don’t see your parents agreeing with your point of view. They don’t seem like the type to get angry at you for wanting to be happy.” 

**__**

Poppy pouted and crossed her arms as she took in his words. 

**__**

“You sound like Tora,” she groused. 

**__**

“Why?” 

**__**

“He told me the same thing earlier when he dropped me off at the restaurant.” 

**__**

“Then, maybe you should listen to him. He’s a smart man.” Quincey tapped his chin as he thought. “Say, you just mentioned that he thinks of you as a kid. How do you know? Have you tried to, I don’t know, flirt with him or something?” 

**__**

Poppy dropped her arms sadly back down. Flirt with the man? She probably had a greater chance of getting a response from a rock than him. 

**__**

“I’m going to take that as a no. But why not?” 

**__**

“Because it would be useless. He’s always so serious, so… aloof. I can barely manage to get a small conversation out of him and that’s with me making up for most of the silence. We don’t go any further than just morning greetings and asking me what I have planned for the day. He’ll… try to be funny sometimes, but it’s so… So. No, I haven’t tried to flirt with him.” 

**__**

“Then, how do you know if he'll respond if you don’t even try?” 

**__**

“Because he doesn’t even call me by my name!” Poppy cried, followed by a gasp when she realized she was being dramatic in the middle of the shop. She leaned towards Quincey and lowered her voice. “He refuses to call me Poppy, even when I’ve requested he calls me so. It’s always ‘Miss Wilkes' or ‘Miss Poppy'. He’s so…serious. And it’s gotten even worse as the years have gone by.” 

**__**

“Meaning?” 

**__**

“He was nicer when I was a kid, but once I hit eighteen it was like an invisible wall was drawn up and I lost the small amount of friendship and friendliness I got from him before.” 

**__**

“Interesting...” Quincey tapped his chin again as he tried to connect the dots to that information. 

**__**

**__**

**From** what Quincey remembered of Tora, the man was a rock. 

**__**

He didn’t really smile—or if he did, Quincey hadn’t seen it—he was the most serious guy his father had ever employed. If he had been sworn in at fifteen, Quincey could only imagine how much younger Tora had been when he had been “found.” 

**__**

He wasn’t old enough to go out and do bigger jobs like the other men, but Tora had been ‘old enough’ to follow Quincey around everywhere and become his shadow. Quincey was about fourteen and not the best at self-defense. Truthfully, the only reason his father had made Tora Quincey’s bodyguard was because Quincey was useless at defending himself or fending off unwanted attention, and Vincent Balthuman knew that. 

**__**

If he was honest, Quincey had always thought that Vincent preferred Tora over himself, his own son. 

**__**

If the stoic boy knew it, he never showed it. 

**__**

One of the last times that Quincey had seen Tora was when he was the nude model for the art class; the other when Tora had come out and told Quincey that he better shut his trap and not go blabbing to his daddy dearest that he’d seen him. 

**__**

After that class was over, Quincey had never seen Tora around the college anymore. It was like he’d disappeared off the face of the Earth again. 

**__**

Until now. 

**__**

**__**

And now this was just getting even more complicated. 

**__**

It wasn’t that Quincey had a problem with the man. It was just that he was expected to marry a girl he didn’t want and then found out that said man that told him to stay away was her driver. Which meant, he wouldn’t be able to stay away from the man. 

**__**

And that man was hot. 

**__**

But scary as f— 

**__**

“Quincey?” 

**__**

“Hmm?” 

**__**

“When our parents finally decide on a wedding date for us—” 

**__**

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, honey, no. You mean ‘if’ they—” 

**__**

Poppy shook her head, “No, Quincey. I meant _when_ because you know that what they were going to discuss was our engagement today, right? Like I said before, I can see you’re a nice guy, but I don’t want to marry you.” 

**__**

“I... I completely understand where you’re coming from. You’re cute and all, but you’re not really my type. You’re kind of short, a little too young for my taste—” 

**__**

“Thanks Quincey!” Poppy cut in. “I know I'm not that pretty, and I'm sure you and Tora are probably surrounded by beautiful women all the time—Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him with a woman. Of course, he’s not going to be bringing a girl home where he works... But...” her gaze dropped again. “I’m sure they’re beautiful...And I'm just me.” 

**__**

“Poppy...” Quincey felt bad for the girl. He felt bad that he didn’t feel any more for her than just friendship. She was a nice kid, but Tora... That man had some sort of jaded past that the girl didn’t need in her life. It sucked to say it, but she was better off without him. 

**__**

Quincey took her hand in his, patting the top of it with his other. 

**__**

“How are we going to just marry? They’ll expect kids and—” 

**__**

“Uh.” Well, that wasn’t something Quincey had thought about. She was right. “Uh...” 

**__**

“I haven’t even kissed a guy yet!” Poppy sighed with a pout. 

**__**

“Okay, but how in the hell have you not kissed anyone yet? Surely, you’ve kissed someone. Next, you’re going to say that you’re also a virg—” 

**__**

“But I am a virgin, Quincey.” Poppy flushed and shot him a look. “It’s not for the lack of trying or wanting to be that way. I just... Have very protective parents is all.” 

**__**

Quincey looked embarrassed and shocked at the same time. He eyed Poppy. Sure, she was cute, but still. And his folks wanted him to … Oop. He didn’t feel like being the one to deflower any virgins any time soon. 

**__**

“Alright, honey, I can help with one of those two things you’ve pointed out.” 

**__**

Poppy’s eyes widened. 

**__**

“What?” 

**__**

“So, you’ve never been kissed? Big deal. I’m here and willing if you want to try.” 

**__**

“I...” 

**__**

**__**

**Allllrriiighty** , then. 

**__**

Poppy stared at Quincey as he settled himself comfortably against the seat. He had a huge grin on his face as he stared back at her. 

**__**

Despite her best intentions, she could feel her heart racing at his offer. He was a good-looking man—Man, how she wished she could be attracted to him as she was to Tora—and he was nice. He was neat, nice, and with a respectable job. He’d even proven to be a good listener and spent the last two hours listening to her complains. 

**__**

The fact that he’d gone against his parents’ wishes made her glad that he was the one she would more than likely have to marry in the end. 

**__**

But could she kiss the man? 

**__**

It was just a kiss. He did offer his assistance with it. If she was going to have to marry the man, then it wouldn’t be a big deal. 

**__**

“You know what? Fudge this.” Poppy gave Quincey a look. “I’ll take you up on your offer.” 

**__**

“Really? Alright. Come over here, Poppy.” 

**__**

They both started leaning in towards each other, Quincey reaching out and cupping her face in one of his hands. 

**__**

Be still my heart, she thought to herself as they got closer—she could see all those thick eyelashes of his, the speckles in his eyes. She closed her eyes and waited to feel the feel of his lips on hers when— 

**__**

_**TAP, TAP, TAP.**_

**__**

“What the heck?” 

**__**

Poppy opened her eyes to find Quincey pulling away from her. Frowning, she turned to the window and gasped when she found none other than Tora standing there staring at them through the glass. 

**__**

“Oh my god.” Poppy jumped to her feet when he showed her his wrist and pointed to his watch. “I’m so sorry, Quincey. I really have to go! I forgot about my last class and I have an exam today!” 

**__**

Quincey nodded. “No worries. Maybe next time we try again?” he said with a wink. 

**__**

Grinning, Poppy went around and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you for everything. And for wanting to—yeah, thank you for everything. I’ll text you!” 

**__**

“No worries!” 

**__**

Poppy rushed out to meet Tora who was holding the door open for her to slip into the car. She waved at Quincey once more before Tora shut the door. 

**__**

“Looks like your lunch went better than expected,” Tora commented when he’d slipped into the front seat. He eyed her through the rearview mirror and saw her smiling to herself. 

**__**

Because she didn’t want to make it seem like she was still upset about earlier, about the arranged marriage, and because she didn’t want to tell Tora about what she’d spoken to Quincey about, she just shrugged and said it went fine. 

**__**

“He’s a really great guy. He’s funny, sweet, and a good listener.” 

**__**

Tora wanted to snort. “Oh, yeah. You guys really hit it off then. I mean, you were all kissy kissy already.” 

**__**

That had Poppy raising her eyes to meet his on the mirror. Did he care? 

**__**

“He’s a good-looking man.” 

**__**

“Sometimes there’s more to someone than just their good looks. Just because they’re nice or good-looking doesn’t mean that they’ll work out.” 

**__**

“Tell me about it,” Poppy sighed as she leaned back and stared out the window. “That’s something I learned a long time ago.” She didn’t see the frown that he shot her. 

**__**

All those years spent daydreaming about Tora noticing her as more than just his boss’ daughter were a waste. 

**__**

If she had to marry someone for business, then she might as well marry Quincey. At least he was nice to be around, handsome, and actually spoke to her. 

**__**

**__**

**__**

“Say, Tora, how did you manage to find us?” 

**__**

Tora stretched out his hand for her to take as he helped her out of the car. 

**__**

“Simple. I came to pick you up, but the valet said that you’d left with a blond man. He pointed me in the direction of where you’d both left on foot and I just followed that path. There’s not a lot of places you could’ve gone on foot, especially with those heels of yours.” 

**__**

Poppy smiled and took the bag he held for her. 

**__**

“Good detective work,” she said as she glanced up at him. 

**__**

She couldn’t deny that she felt hopeless at having to marry someone she hadn’t chosen herself. The man she’d been half in love—if not entirely—since she was fifteen didn’t want her, at least not in the way that she wished he would. She allowed herself to study his features, she wanted to see what was so special about him that it had driven her to act like a hopeless puppy. 

**__**

His golden eyes had stayed the same, his other features had only matured as he’d aged. He was twenty-seven now and his cheekbones had sharpened into fine lines, his jaw, his brows. Those dark eyelashes that she envied and those lips of his. He’d gained an inch or two over the last six years and he’d filled out more since he’d taken to exercising over the last four years. He was already tall and broad-shouldered to begin with, but now... Now he was just huge. For two years now, she'd been waking up early enough to see him leaving his place and running past the main house and out the gate to go on his run. An hour later, she’d go back to the window to see him coming back, sweat over his brows, his shirts drenched from exertion. Now that she thought about it, that sounded so sad— waking up at five a.m. just to see him. Jeez. 

**__**

Then there was his hair. He’d let grow out over the last two years and now it hung down his back in a silky black wall, the top part separated into a man bun and boy... Overall, he’d gotten hotter. 

**__**

Fine. The man was hot, but so what? 

**__**

Quincey was easy on the eyes as well. Tall, broad shouldered, greenish eyes with a killer smile, a great conversationalist with a fashion sense. 

**__**

Poppy could barely get a ‘good morning’ out of Tora on some mornings. 

**__**

Given an option between both of them, she’d probably still take Quincey whom at least she knew would greet her with a smile as oppose to someone whom she’d have to shovel the words out of. 

**__**

**__**

“You’re a good man,” Poppy concluded in the end as she patted Tora on the shoulder. He eyed her hand moving over his shoulder but said nothing. Sensing that he was uncomfortable with the contact, she gave him a small smile and fixed her bag on her shoulder. “Thank you for the ride. It shouldn’t take me too long to finish my exam. I'll text you when I'm done, okay?” 

**__**

“Sure.” 

**__**

He continued to stare at her as she shuffled her feet and looked away pretending to be busy as she looked for something inside her bag. She shot him one last look before starting to walk away. 

**__**

“He’s not the one for you. He’ll only make you suffer,” Tora blurted out, catching her off-guard and making her frown. She turned back to face him as she hugged her binder to her chest. 

**__**

“Excuse me?” 

**__**

“If you marry him, you’ll only live your life regretting it. You still have the chance to choose whom you want to marry. A chance to pick your own life, your own career. You don’t have to marry him just because your parents chose him for you.” 

**__**

Poppy cocked her head slightly to one side. “I know... The way I see it now is that I don’t even have to worry about the struggle of dating people when it’s been handed to me already. Besides, I like Quincey, surprisingly, and he seems to like me back as well. But the thing is that the one I like doesn’t like me back, and I won’t go the rest of my life alone simply for unrequited love. I don’t know what your deal is with Quincey, Tora, but please keep me out of it. I’m not sure what your deal is, but you’re acting weird. I-I have to go before I'm late to class. I’ll talk to you later.” 

**__**

She gave him one last look before turning and walking away. 

**__**

.. 

**__**

**__**

“So, what did you think about Quinceton?” 

**__**

“He’s pretty interesting, nice to talk to,” Poppy told her mother as they sat around a circular table eating dinner. The weather was nice and they’d taken to eating dinners outside in the patio. Tora, whom Robert had been deep in conversation with heard ‘Quinceton’ and his attention flipped to the women’s conversation. 

**__**

“He seems like a good man,” Mary continued as she cut into her chicken. “And not bad to look at either,” she giggled the last part and shot Poppy a wink. 

**__**

“No kidding. I thought he was going to be a stuffy ass—stuffy jerk.” Poppy flushed at the look her mother gave her. “He turned out to be a very nice person to talk to.” 

**__**

“So where did you two go?” 

**__**

“Ice cream shop. It was a nice place and the people were friendly. We ended up just chatting away until Tora came to pick me up,” Poppy told her mother. 

**__**

“I think you two make a beautiful couple,” Mary gushed with a sigh. She missed Poppy’s scowl and the dark look that Tora gave her daughter. “You’ll make such beautiful grandbabies!” 

**__**

Poppy, who was in the middle of taking a bite of her food, started choking on her bite. 

**__**

Tora leaned over and gave her a strong pat on the back to clear her throat. Eyes watering, she waved Tora away, took a sip of water, and looked back at her mother. 

**__**

“Mom, we haven’t even gotten engaged and you’re already trying to get babies out of me? What if I don’t want kids?” 

**__**

“Nonsense, darling, one day you’ll want them. Maybe not now. But some day. Now...” 

**__**

**__**

Tora had lost all interest in the conversation he was having with Robert. 

**__**

The other man’s name only served to remind him about how he was supposed to be finding ways to get those two as far apart as possible. 

**__**

He glanced over at Poppy who was no longer smiling, her face set into a thin line as she listened to her mother talking about how many people they could invite to the wedding, what color scheme would go well with Poppy’s complexion, ideas of when to have the wedding... But the older woman didn’t seem to notice that her daughter had lost all interest. 

**__**

It made him upset to see how Rob and Mary didn’t seem to notice how Poppy was hurting. The girl kept agreeing to everything they told her, never putting her input, and it just never hit them how bad it was. Did they want to see their daughter heartbroken, loveless, and childless in the future. Maybe even dead. 

**__**

Part of Tora wanted to shake some sense into the couple, into Poppy, just so she could see how this was one big mess. All the time she spent trying to get him to listen to her, talking his ear off, and now that he wanted to speak to her about something important, she refused to listen to him. He wished he could just tell her how... how... Damn! 

**__**

His past was coming back to haunt him. How and why, out of all the men in the world that Poppy could possibly end up marrying, did her parents decide on the one family with a shady background, shady connections, and a son who was not going to be interested in their daughter. Maybe in her personality, yes, but physically? Tora doubted the man would ever touch the girl. 

**__**

Besides, Tora knew that Poppy was interested in _him_. 

**__**

She’d always been interested in him. 

**__**

If Tora had to keep his distance from her to keep her safe, then he was going to also keep Quincey away from her as well. 

**__**

**__**

**__**

_“So, how old are you again?”_

**__**

_Tora looked up from his book and glanced over at Poppy who was reaching for some apples from a nearby branch._

**__**

_She had brought a wagon covered in a giant sack for her apples._

**__**

_“Why do you want to know?” he asked the girl as she got a couple more apples for her wagon. She turned her flushed face to his and grinned._

**__**

_“Because you look young, but you have to be at least twenty-one for Dad to have hired you.” She wiped at the sweat on her forehead and turned back to the tree again. “Dad’s like that. He thinks twenty-one is the proper age for someone to be considered an adult.”_

**__**

_“Well, you’re not wrong. I_ **_am_ ** _twenty-one.”_

**__**

_“I thought so. Man, I'm parched.” Tora watched the girl dig through the backpack that she’d packed and pull out a little square juice box. She held it out to him. “Juice?”_

**__**

_“I’m good. Thanks though.”_

**__**

_“It’s good juice. Strawberry. It’s my current favorite flavor,” she explained as she pulled out another one. “Here, take it. I’ll be offended if you refuse it.”_

**__**

_Tora gave her a small smile—one of his Mona Lisa smiles—as Poppy referred them to._

**__**

_“Fine. I guess I shouldn’t make you feel bad.”_

**__**

_“Nope. I would feel really, really, really bad.”_

**__**

_He chuckled as he stabbed the box with the straw. “Would I be in trouble?”_

**__**

_“Yeah. I’d never offer you any more juices ever again. Even if you really wanted one.”_

**__**

_“Ouch. Heartbreaker.” Tora grinned as he sipped on his juice. Poppy stared at him, looking pleased with herself that she’d gotten him to drink it. “It’s good.”_

**__**

_“ Of course, it’s good. I told you, it’s my favorite. Something has to be good for me to like it,” she explained._

**__**

_“I’ll remember that.” Tora tipped his juice box towards her. “Cheers.”_

**__**

_“Cheers,” Poppy said as she sipped on her own juice. “You know, I have promised myself that by the time I turn twenty-one I'm going to have tons of stamps from countries around the world on my passport. I’ll go on a road trip through the country, and I'll visit places my parents would never allow me to visit now. What did you hope to have achieved when you were a boy?”_

**__**

_Tora sipped on his juice and said nothing for a moment. Finally, he shrugged._

**__**

_“Truthfully, I've come further than I imagine I would have. I’m alive for once. I have a job. I’m not... stuck in a prison serving time somewhere. I’m happy with where I am.”_

**__**

_“Sounds so morbid. You make it sound like you were a terrible kid growing up.” Poppy finished her juice and tossed the box back into the backpack. “What about school? Did you ever think about going to college?”_

**__**

_“I have a degree. It’s an Associates, but still a degree. Will I do anything with it? Probably not.” Tora watched Poppy staring at him in wonder. “What?”_

**__**

_“What did you major in?”_

**__**

_“Uh, it was generic. Sciences. It pretty much just means that I finished a bunch of science classes and can follow up with more. Just a bunch of prerequisites.”_

**__**

_“You don’t sound excited at all. I can’t wait until I'm old enough to go to college! I plan to either become an editor or do something with art. I’m good with my hands.” Poppy grinned widely at Tora before turning back to a tree and starting to climb it._

**__**

_“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Where do you think you’re going?” Tora asked as he went over and got her by her waist, pulling her off the tree to set her on the ground again. She pouted at him as she turned around._

**__**

_“What was that for?”_

**__**

_“Your father said no more climbing trees,” he pointed out and she groaned. “I don’t plan on being a human mattress again if you fall off.”_

**__**

_“That was one time!”_

**__**

_“That you fell on_ **_me_ ** _. How many times have you fallen off trees before that?”_

**__**

_Poppy groaned again and set her hands on her waist. “Doesn’t matter. I’m good at climbing trees.”_

**__**

_“You’re going to hurt yourself, little Poppy,” Tora said again as he leaned against one of the other trees. “I promised your father that I would keep you safe. Why don’t I help you pick the apples instead?”_

**__**

_“Because you’re not going to know which ones are the good ones,” Poppy exclaimed. “I have a method, and I know which ones I like.”_

**__**

_“Little hamster, it’s not that hard to figure out which ones are good,” Tora said back as he reached up above his head and plucked an apple off a branch. He handed it to her, and she inspected it, finally giving him the stink eye. “See?”_

**__**

_“Lucky one. Anyways, what high school did you graduate from...?”_

**__**

**__**

Now, he stared at the young woman, no longer a fifteen-year-old kid with baggy t-shirts or cargo pants. She sat primly in her chair, back straight, anxious, as she listened to her mother going on about a wedding she never wanted. 

**__**

She wasn’t that awkward teenager anymore, most of her baby fat had turned into curves and fallen into specific places like her hips and... chest. 

**__**

She was wearing a jean skirt and some baggy soft shirt that resembled a sweater. Her white sneakers planted firmly on the floor and her hair up into two French braids reminded him of a teacher or a librarian. Gone was the mature young woman she’d resembled earlier that day during lunch. 

**__**

Tora felt his jaw tick at the realization that this was how she was most comfortable, in comfy sweaters and natural faced. Gone was the make-up she had sported and the semblance of maturity and... 

**__**

She dropped her gaze from her mother as she looked bored, turning her head, and suddenly catching her eyes with his. She said nothing, didn’t even make a face—just caught his eye and stared off into space again. 

**__**

If she married into the Balthuman family she wouldn’t have the freedom to dress however she wanted, go however she wanted to where she pleased. She would have to dress to impress and keep that façade up wherever and whenever she was out of the house. Quincey, although he seemed to keep away from his parents’ affairs, seemed to also dress to impress—even if it wasn’t for his parents’ sake—for his own affairs. Could Tora see Poppy keeping up with him should they marry? Probably not. 

**__**

She would become even more the puppet she was now. 

**__**

Just in someone else’s business affairs. 

**__**

“I think I'm going to head to bed. I’ve had a long day and I feel a, uh, migraine coming on.” 

**__**

**__**

Tora watched her press a finger to her temple as she bade her parents goodnight. She nodded at him before saying goodnight to him as well and slipping out of the patio and into the house. 

**__**

“Hey, Tora, my boy, do you think something’s up with my baby?” Robert asked Tora who turned to him. 

**__**

“What do you mean?” 

**__**

“She’s been acting... distant lately.” 

**__**

“I don’t think she’s happy,” Mary pointed out as she continued to stare at the doorway where the girl had disappeared through. “I thought she’d be excited about planning her wedding. We used to have so much fun planning these things and imagining what her party would be like when she was a teen. I don’t know why she longer talks to me anymore...” 

**__**

“I’m sure she appreciates your input. Perhaps she’s stressed from school?” 

**__**

“She looked happy earlier when she met Quincey. But now, she’s back to blocking out anything related to the marriage. Do you think we’re pushing her too much?” 

**__**

Tora studied his bosses. He liked them, he truly did, they cared for him as if he was their son sometimes. He didn’t want to hurt their feelings or go against their beliefs, but he also cared for Poppy whom he’d taken care of since she was a kid. They had their lives made up, Poppy didn’t. 

**__**

He sighed and set his glass on the table again. 

**__**

“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to intrude upon your plans or... sound inappropriate, but I don’t think she wants to get married. This wasn’t part of her plan.” 

**__**

“What plan?” Robert asked with a small frown. “Did she have something else in mind?” 

**__**

“She’s never said anything,” Mary wondered aloud as she touched a hand to her cheek. 

**__**

Tora sighed. “She wanted to travel, to visit new places, to go on a road trip.” 

**__**

“When did she tell you this?” 

**__**

“It was a conversation we had years ago one day when I was helping her pick apples.” 

**__**

“She’s never mentioned it to us before, though...” Mary replied with a frown. “I would remember if she had mentioned it before. How... how come she wouldn’t tell us?” 

**__**

“Maybe she’s afraid that she’ll hurt your feelings or upset you if she went against your decisions?” Tora made it seem a question even when he knew it was a fact. 

**__**

Mary looked at Robert who frowned as well. 

**__**

“We wouldn’t get upset at her for wanting to travel.” 

**__**

“We travel all the time.” 

**__**

“I think she meant by herself,” Tora started and glanced at his glass of water. “Without you two.” 

**__**

“Oh.” 

**__**

“But it’s not safe for her to travel alone. She’s young... She’s not an unattractive young woman, and I wouldn’t want her to catch unwanted attention,” Mary explained as she placed a hand on her husband’s arm. “I don’t want her to think she’s not free to travel.” 

**__**

“I just wish she’d tell us.” 

**__**

Tora shook his head. “She’ll probably tell you when she’s comfortable, or when she’s free.” _Never._ _She’s_ _never going to tell you._

**__**

“I hope so...” Mary said softly. 

**__**

Tora excused himself when the couple started talking amongst themselves. 

**__**

As he went around the patio and down onto a grassy part of the backyard, crossing the lawn to ‘his’ house, he looked back up at where Poppy’s window was. She sat at the window, staring down at him as he made his way across... 

**__**

He waved at her... and dropped his arm when she didn’t wave back. Simply moved away from the window and let the curtain fall. 

**__**

**__**

The next day was the first time in two years that Tora had woken up early for his morning run and not seen Poppy at her window watching him run by... 

**__**

And he didn’t know why he felt a little sad about it. 

**__**

…. 

**__**

**__**

**__**

**__**

**__**

**__**

**__**

**__**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello beautiful people.
> 
> Here's a 2nd chapter for this story. I will try to take my time writing this one because I feel like I sped through UNDERNEATH THE FACADE.  
> I have plans for this and hopefully I can clear my head enough to get them all out.  
> I hope everyone is doing okay and still healthy and safe.
> 
> I'm not sure when the next one for this will be uploaded, since I am working on my personal story on TAPAS.  
> You can find me there as - Nurse Amethyst and if you want, you can check out:  
> "SOUL ON FIRE" and  
> "THE THIN LINE BETWEEN HATE AND LOVE"
> 
> Thanks y'all! <3


	3. announcement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> little update

Hello, everyone. Just stopping by to give you guys an update of whats going with this story.  
Well, for one, it might be longer for a new update. I've been dead on my feet with work... and to be honest, not doing that great mentally wise.

I met someone. But apparently, things don't work out the way they do, so... that didn't work out. I see where he's coming from.... but ... not emotionally well to focus on things right now.

It kinda sucks when they tell you that "you're fun, you're sexy, you're an absolutely beautiful person and hardworking, but ..." apparently I'm too emotional. Whatever.

I'll take my family any day of the week over a guy.

Sorry for the sob story. Hope you guys are doing well, and I'll try to get something for you guys maybe next week.

~~ Nurse Amethyst


	4. French Girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Poppy's leaving. Tora's confused. Quincey's is a good/bad influence. It's time for a little adventure.  
> ............
> 
> ALL CHARACTERS BELONG TO MISS LILYDUSK FOR HER WEBCOMIC "Midnight Poppy Land" WHICH YOU CAN FIND ON WEBTOONS.  
> JOIN HER PATREON PAGE FOR AWESOME GOODIES AND HER INSTAGRAM.  
> I'M JUST BORROWING HER CHARACTERS FOR DAYDREAM PURPOSES ;D  
> ..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LOST ON YOU- LP  
> SMILE LIKE YOU MEAN IT- The Killers  
> JULY- Noah Cyrus  
> ....  
> hi everyone! I'm back-ish!  
> Thank you for the love and support. it really has helped me get through these last couple weeks of craziness.  
> thank you for the thoughts and well-wishes as well.

** …….. **

** <travelling> **

** P ** : Hi. Are you awake?

** Q ** : No.  I’m a vampire. I  don’t sleep.

** P: ** Can I call you?

** Q ** : K

**_ “Hi _ ** . I’m sorry to bother you so late at night.”

“Honey, dear, you’re fine.  You’re not bothering me. I have no life besides work. What’s wrong?”

Poppy sighed and held tight to the phone before she spoke. “I just heard my parents talking with Tora about me wanting to go travelling.”

“Ooh. Nice. Where are you planning on going?”

“Nowhere.  I’m not going travelling. I don’t have time to go travelling anywhere,” Poppy made sure her door was locked before going to sit at the bench next to her window. The same window that she would always stare out of in the mornings to see Tora on his runs. “I’ve never said anything about travelling because I know they would get all sorts of funny.”

“Then how come they were just talking to Tora about it?”

“He probably told them. The only other person that I’ve told about that is him. I can’t believe that he would tell them that. I left the dinner table early and went back down to ask them something and overheard my mom going on about how dangerous it would be for me to travel alone.”

“That sucks balls,” Quincey said as he tapped on his chin with a pen. He was in the middle of writing, except he had major writer’s block. His brain usually worked best at night and his sleeping schedule had been accommodated to his writing.  Tonight was one of those nights where it was midnight and he barely had a page of writing  completed , not his usual ten at least. “So , are you going to go on a trip now that it’s been assumed you have plans?”

“ But  Quincey, I have no plans.”

“Those are the best kind of trips. You just leave. You pack your bags, grab your money, and drive.”

“But Tora does the driving for me. How am I supposed to leave without a car for me to take?” She thought for a second. “Well, I do have my own car, just he does the driving because my parents don’t want me doing that.”

“We can take my car.” Quincey heard the gasp from the other end of the line. “Poppy?”

“You want to go travelling with me?”

“Sure, why not? I have nothing else to do besides work. But then, I partly own the place, I don’t have any deadlines coming up and I need a creativity boost. A trip to nowhere and everywhere sounds absolutely delicious right now. Also, it sounds like it would piss my parents and I’m okay with that.”

Poppy laughed on the other. “You’re crazy!”

Quincey chuckled. “You say that as if it’s a terrible thing. A little crazy has never hurt anyone. So, how about it?”

“Well, I do have classes to attend so…”

“Didn’t you say you’re on Spring Break next week?”

“Oh. Oh  yeah , huh!” Poppy went over to her calendar by her dresser. “I’m off until two Mondays from now. Technically Tuesday since I don’t have Monday classes.”

“Alright. We can leave tonight if you want.”

“What!?”

“What? Why do you sound so surprised?” Quincey smiled on his end. He liked Poppy. She was fun to tease, nice to talk to, and she didn’t treat him like a freak. She was the most down-to-Earth person that he’d had the chance to meet. Maybe, just maybe, something good could come out of this trip. Besides, if they were supposed to end up marry, why not get to know each other? If they didn’t end up hating or killing each other before the trip was over, then he could call it a success.

“I can’t just, I don’t know, just leave  _ tonight  _ and not plan it out. My parents would kill me!” Poppy could only imagine what kind of things her parents would say if they heard that she had left without telling them.

When Poppy was about five, she had decided that she was ‘running away from home ’. It something a little dramatic for a five-year-old to proclaim and her parents hadn't really said anything about it. After all, the only reason Poppy had been angry about was because she got told she couldn’t eat chicken nuggets for the third night in a row. 

Little did they know that Poppy had made up her mind about running away. When she got sent to bed, she decided to escape through the backdoor, ran across the yard to the other guest house, and hidden in one of the rooms there. It had taken them a good day before they found her and her mother had been in hysterics. They’d decided that they were going to try to homeschool her as much as they could to avoid any crazy thing like Poppy being kidnapped. They had closed off the guest house and whatever housekeeper came and helped would stay in one of the spare rooms downstairs. 

That was a good sixteen years ago, and it still messed up with Poppy’s life now. Her parents were so protective of her it drove her crazy. She had spent her elementary and middle school years being homeschooled until she begged and begged her parents to let her go to real school. It wasn’t until high school that she had finally set foot on a public school and seen what the big deal was that they made of high school in movies and TV shows.

She'd been a good student, participating in clubs and tutoring other kids. High school had come and gone and now, close to being twenty-one, she was ready for the next step in life—which was not marriage—but trying out new things for herself. She was a curious creature by nature and meeting Tora had turned that childhood curiosity into something else as the years had gone by.

“Poppy? You still there?”

Poppy blushed at the realization of the route her thoughts had been going. Tora. Tora. Always Tora. Lately, that's all that had been in her mind...

“Yes, sorry. I was trying to think about how I could tell my parents that I'm going on a trip.” 

“We can just go...?” Poppy heard the excitement in Quincey’s voice. The man was a handful of trouble, that’s what he was. She didn’t think that he was kidding about how much it would piss off his parents. She wasn’t so sure about whether she should try to make her parents worry, though. Although...

If she left now and they got enough distance between them, then maybe she could simply text them later and tell them that she was fine. They wouldn’t too be mad if she told them that she had left with Quincey... Right? He was the person that they wanted her to marry anyways, so maybe this could be a little bit of their fault? 

“You know, Quincey... I think it’s an interesting idea. A road trip. I haven’t done that in a while.” Poppy got out from her spot by the window and headed towards her closet, yanking out the first gym bag she could find. “I think it’s a wonderful idea, actually.”

“Uh, really?”

“Really. Unless you don’t want to. I’m up for it, even if you don’t want to go. I’ll probably just end up going by myself.” Poppy could hear him chuckling on the other end of the line. “I’m tired of this place.”

“Darling,” Quincey started with a drawl and a chuckle. “I am going with you. You make my spidey senses tingle. Except they’re always ready for trouble. I sense drama and trouble and I’m there.”

“Well, wow.” Poppy had to laugh at that as well. “I wonder if my parents would still want me to marry you after this?”

“I thought you didn’t want to marry?” Quincey was already shoving whatever clean clothes he found in his drawers.  He’d found an old gym bag from when he had been trying to mingle with people  there. That ship had sailed as well, so long ago.

“I don’t. If you don’t. Which is fine with me. However, if I  have to…” She stopped for a moment and stared at the phone. “I guess you’re not that bad. You’re fun, too.”

All Quincey did on the other end was mumble something she  couldn’t understand. 

“If it comes down to that… ”

“Yes, I suppose.” With a sigh,  Quincey added, “There are so many things that we’ll be able to talk about during this trip, darling.”

“Yeah…  Anyways, give me about half an hour? I  don’t really have a lot to pack and we can buy the rest on our way. My car or yours?”

“Didn’t you say that Tora drives you around?”

“ Yeah but doesn’t mean I don’t drive. I have a Jeep.”

“I have a golden color Corvette , ” Quincey volunteered. 

“Very flashy.”

“True .  If you  don’t mind us taking your car, I’ll pitch in with gas and shit.”

“Sounds good. Text me your address and I’ll be there in like… Half an hour.”

“Sounds good.”

“Good. Okies!”

.

** His  ** very own Spidey senses were tingling...

Feeling uneasy, Tora got out of bed from where  he’d been lying awake for the last hour staring at the ceiling.

He  couldn’t help but think about what  he’d talked about the Wilkes earlier  about Poppy. 

That was another problem right there,  _ Miss  _ Poppy. That girl was far more trouble that her parents gave her credit for. Did they know that she was always trying to hit on him? Always with the small snacks, the extra meals for him, the conversation. Okay,  maybe the conversation was fine, but the rest... He  wasn’t so sure about it.

She  wasn’t pushy, per say, but she was insistent. When  he’d first met her when she was fifteen, he knew that  she’d immediately taken to him. He  didn’t worry about it because he figured it was only  a schoolgirl crush. She would get pink in the face and mumble more than usual when he came around. Eventually, she got better at acting normal around him. He never teased her any more than he needed to, just to be nice, because he  didn’t want to get into trouble. With his past, things could appear very out of hand...

But she  wasn’t fifteen anymore.

And she  wasn’t just a shy  schoolgirl either.

Tora cursed and slapped a hand to his face. Fuck. He was being ridiculous. That girl was nothing but trouble, the kind of which he  didn’t need right now. He had his own schooling to deal with in between dropping her off at school and dealing with other things .  The problem was that lately  she’d gotten this strange idea that she wanted him to call her by her first name.

First, it was the conversation. He was not the best conversationalist, but she pushes, and he tries. Then, she goes and starts asking him to drop the ‘Miss ’, to drop the ‘Wilkes ’, _ just Poppy _ . She knows very well that he  can’t do that.  That’s too much familiarity and friendliness between them that he  can’t afford to grow into  fruition , something that her parents might find  rather strange . And now to make matters worse, she was angry at him for telling her that she needed to stand up to her parents. He was playing it right along the line of danger, borderline on things he had no business getting caught in, but it bothered the hell out of him how compliant she was with all the demands placed on her... and she never complained about it.

Bring that pampered blond fool,  _ Quinceton _ , into the mix and it just made Tora even angrier.

“Shit!”

Tora smacked the wall by the window when he thought about how damn cozy those two had looked earlier when  he’d found them .  They were about to fucking kiss...

With a gasp and a pang in his chest, Tora felt momentarily shocked at the rage that filled his body at the thought of Quincey kissing Poppy. It  shouldn’t fuck matter, it  shouldn’t fucking matter to him  _ at all _ considering he was just her driver. Her fucking driver. 

She was not his business—well she was, when he was supposed to be taking care of her, she was—and he needed to calm the fuck down and stop acting like a Neanderthal. He scolded himself for the anger he’d felt and told him it was because she was his responsibility.

Was he supposed to keep being her driver once she got married?

The thought of driving the newly married Mrs. Quincey Balthuman made his blood boil.

How awkward, how  nauseating . How... it pissed him off.

Quincey had plenty of money to hire someone to drive her around. Besides, she was a grown woman who could drive herself. The only  reason why he did it was because her parents wanted her to have a driver—or someone to keep her out of trouble, more likely—but she could drive herself. It  wasn’t as if she  didn’t _ know _ how.

A grown  _ woman _ ...

Tora leaned against the  windowsill and stared out. 

Poppy  wasn’t the little girl that  he’d met at fifteen, that was for sure. Even if he tried to deny it or ignore it, she was all grown up now. That dress that  she’d worn for lunch earlier had been a blatant reminder of the  thoughts he’d been trying to push down and out of sight.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Then her mother had to go ahead and put her on display like that.

Tora sighed, running a hand through his hair and down his face. These Wilkes women were trouble with a capital  ** T ** . As much as he liked Mary, she had the tendency to overlook her daughter’s concerns. He knew she was trying to be protective but that would just end up pushing the girl away. 

Sigh.

Tora glanced out and up towards the main house where Poppy’s light was still on behind the curtains. He could see her shadow running about... What was she doing up so late? Usually, she was asleep at this time. A glance down at the clock by his bed told him it was almost one in the morning...

_ Flitting about like a fairy on caffeine, _ he mused as he went back to staring at her window.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when he glanced back out and found her looking straight back at his own window as she pulled the curtain back a bit. Surely, she didn’t see him standing there peeking at her like an idiot... He hadn’t moved the curtains, was simply looking out through a crack on it.

She stared out for a good minute, before she shook her head and let the curtain drop. Soon after, her light was turned off.

_ Well, that was... weird? _

Tora continued to stare at the window to make sure she truly was asleep before turning and heading back to his own bed.

The safest Poppy was the sleeping Poppy.

Before he knew it,  he’d fallen asleep.

.

“I am  sooo sorry, Quincey! He just wouldn’t go to sleep,” Poppy explained in a rushed whisper. It was almost one in the morning, far longer than she’d told Quincey that she would go pick him up. The thing was that she couldn’t leave, she’d seen Tora poking his head out of the corner of the curtains and she’d known she had to pretend to have gone to bed.

There was no other way. That man  would’ve stalked his way over to the house and prevented her from leaving. He was always all about following her parents’ orders, never stepping a toe out of line, and she hated that.

He liked to talk about her compliance, but what about his? Ugh.

“Yeah, I figured something had occurred. Is everything good though? I can go pick you up if you’d like?” Quincey offered.

“Oh, it’s fine.  He’s gone to sleep now.  It’s been a while,  I’m sure  he’s fast asleep. I’m  go find my car really quick.”

“But wouldn’t he hear the car start?”

“Well, my car is in one of the  furthest back parts of the house. I doubt  he’ll hear it all the way to where he sleeps. I’ll figure it out.”

“Alright, if you say so. If not, I can always go pick you up,” Quincey offered again.

“I’ll get back to you, if my plan doesn’t work out.”

“Alright.”

“Bye.”

And her plan  didn’t work out.

With a groan, Poppy smacked her head against the steering wheel. The stupid Jeep did not start, which she thought it was weird since everything was new in it. It had been a gift when she’d gotten her license, and thanks to stupid Tora, she’d ended up with a hand-me down car since he had told her parents that it would be better for her to ‘wreck a bad car, than a good car’.  They’d listened to the driver and not the daughter.

Poppy popped the hood and groaned even  louder when she found that the battery was missing. Where in the hell...? Double ugh.

There was always the Mercedes... She eyed the black car parked closer to Tora’s house.

He would kill her, bring her back, and kill her again. That was his baby.

She dialed Quincey’s number quickly and explained what had happened. He said  he’d be right over.

Hiding inside the Jeep waiting for Quincey to pick her up was the longest twenty minutes of her life. She felt like she was a teenager again, trying to sneak out the window to go hang out with her boyfriend. Except she had never done that, she was an adult now, and that ‘boyfriend’ was  actually a future ‘fiancé ’. Her phone buzzed and she checked the message from Quincey.

** Out front.  **

Poppy jumped out of the Jeep, grabbing her bag, and shutting the door as softly as she could behind her. She ran her way across the garages, past Tora’s window, and prayed that he  wouldn’t hear her. That man had crazy ears.

She groaned when she realized there was still a fence around the  property she would have to get past.

Quincey came out of the car and told her to squeeze her bag through the fence. If she opened the fence, she would first have to unlock it from inside, and the noise it made when it opened was something she  didn’t want to risk. 

“I’m going to climb the fence,” she whispered to Quincey who gave her a scandalized look. “What?”

“You’re crazy.”

“I used to climb trees all the time,” she explained as she walked over to where there was a wall on the inside and a tree outside.

“Why don’t you just slip through the bars?”

She gestured towards her body. “Really?”

“Well, it’s  a good idea .”

Poppy tried it... and she  didn’t fit.

She clambered over the cement wall, trying to keep her feet securely on it .  It was dark and it was hard to see, but she managed it. There was a branch that fell over the fence that she climbed onto. She really hoped that her dad  hadn’t planted any motion sensors around this part because if it went off, it would light up the whole damn front of the house. Tora would see it, come running, and drag her back inside.

“Be careful, Poppy,” Quincey hissed from the other side of the fence as his damn heart was racing watching the girl climbing over the branch.

“Stop saying that, you’re making me nervous.”

“Well, I could say ‘break a leg’.”

“How is that better!?”

“That’s what they say in theater! Break a leg!”

“That’s horrible!” Poppy sighed in relief when she made it over to the main part of the tree and now it was all about getting down. “I can’t see anything.”

“Drop down, I'll catch you,” he told her while she laughed nervously.

“No offense, but you don’t look like the type of guy who catches falling girls.”

“First of all, rude. Secondly of all, I do so catch.”

“I’m climbing down myself.” Poppy began stretching her leg out, trying to find a good spot where she could place it, but  couldn’t . She only got so far before she lost her footing and she shrieked, falling over backwards...

“Oomph!”

Poppy opened her eyes slowly, finding herself staring up at Quincey who was grinning widely.

“Told you I'd catch you.”

“Well... I guess, thanks? And sorry for assuming things?”

“You’re forgiven,” he chuckled as he set her on her feet again. “Now, come on, before Sleeping Beauty wakes up and decides to kill me.”

They ran back to his car and drove off together into the night.

…

** <next morning> **

“ ** Poppy ** , honey, it’s time for breakfast.”

Mary knocked on the door as she tried to wake Poppy up. It was Saturday, it was a beautiful day outside and there was so much to talk about.  She’d been able to convince her husband that a trip for Poppy was  a good idea , and she  couldn’t wait to let her daughter know.

“Poppy?”

Mary knocked again, doing it at least three  separate times before she let herself in. She liked to give her privacy, but thought it was strange that she  didn’t at least say  she’d be down soon or locked her door. 

“Honey, Poppy... Breakfast is ready. There is so much to talk about. I think  you’ll be very... happy... What the...?” Mary stared at the bed that was perfectly made, but with no Poppy in sight. She walked over to the bathroom, still no Poppy. Had she left early today? Was she out in the backyard?

She was on her way out of the room when she noticed her drawers were open, the closet door ajar and several things thrown about... Mary went into the closet and found that her clothes had been separated in several spots, and some shoes were missing from her racks.

With a sigh, she went back out and headed downstairs.

“ Roooobert , I think Poppy is gone!” she called out as she came around the hall to the dining room. Her husband looked up at her from behind his laptop.

“What?”

“Poppy is gone.”

“What do you mean ‘gone’?” Robert said as he stood up to stare at his wife.

“Gone. She is not in her room. Several pieces of clothing are missing, so are some of her shoes.  She’s not in her room, and I  don’t think  she’s in the back or somewhere else. She’s left.”

“What you mean, she’s left?”

The Wilkes turned to face Tora who was coming in from the other entrance. His mouth was set into a grim line as he faced them. He slowly stepped into the room and looked at them.

“Have you driven Poppy out somewhere earlier this morning?” Robert asked him as he frowned and tried to think of all the possible places his daughter could’ve gone to.

“No. I was up about five in the morning for my run and didn’t see anything strange. Is there a note?”

“No. I’m going to call her.” Mary dialed the number and waited. “It’s worth a try. I mean, if she doesn’t answer the phone it’s probably because she doesn’t want us to find her.” They all waited for Poppy to pick up, Mary sighing in relief at hearing her voice. “ Poppylan Wilkes! Where are you...What do you mean ‘on the road’ ?  You  couldn’t tell us you were leaving?... Are you by yourself? Oh... OH! Oh... Hmm...” Mary glanced up at her husband and at Tora who were trying to listen as well. “Are you safe though!?... I mean, you could’ve told us... Wait, you’re not planning on getting  _ married _ , are you?” Robert sputtered at that while Tora flinched, face hardening even more. “You didn’t elope, did you? Oh, okay... Thank goodness! Oh my god, girl, you almost gave me a heart attack. I just wish  you’d told us you were planning this. We  could’ve sent  To —Oh. No? I mean... Just let us know, keep up updated,  alright ? Stay safe. Love you, too...Bye.”

Mary stared at the screen, putting her phone down and looking at her husband.

“Well?”

“She’s on a  roadtrip ?”

“Is she with—”

“She’s with Quincey. She left with Quincey. They’re both together.”

Tora’s brows lifted in surprise before he turned away. He really  didn’t know what to say or think... Well, he did know what he was going to do. He was going to punch the lights out of that pretty boy’s face.  That’s what he was going to do! He ran a hand down his face as he tried to think about his next step.

“Do we really want her alone with that guy?” Robert asked, which had Tora turning to look at him. He  didn’t sound too pleased that his baby daughter had left with Quincey. Interesting... “They don’t even know each other...” 

Tora started before he could stop himself. “I found them almost kissing yesterday.”

Wow. That came out faster than expected.

It was a moment of silence that followed which had Tora wondering if  perhaps he’d screwed up by mentioning that. Truly, it  wasn’t any of his business what the girl was up to with the  blond . What got him was the fact that the guy was not the best person for her to be mingling with. The line of trouble that came with his last name was still enough to give him a headache even now...

“So, maybe this marriage will work out...” Mary started as she placed a comforting hand on her husband’s shoulder. They had been worrying that Poppy  wouldn’t want to marry the young man. It  wasn’t that they wanted to force her to do anything, in the end, it would be her choice to get married. If they got along well,  perhaps it would make it easier for them if they did get married.

Robert tried to be positive, but there was something in the back of his mind that kept telling him that it would be best to let Poppy come to her own decision to marry someone.

Not someone that they forced upon her.

“What if something happens between them? I mean, they’ll be alone for a while... Things happen...” Robert started, hoping that Mary caught his drift. She obviously did because her eyes widened in realization and her face flushed bright red. “And what if after that, things still don’t work out between them? Do you think that Poppy is  strong enough to handle something like that? To live... A little recklessly, and be fine with the outcomes?”

_ Meaning ‘would she be okay with being a one-night stand _ _ ’, _ Tora thought to himself as he turned away from the couple. This  shouldn’t matter to him,  shouldn’t matter at all. He  didn’t care about what that girl did. She could do whatever she wanted, except... He wanted to hit something.

She was his boss’ daughter, the person that they had entrusted into his hands, and  she’d so quickly disappeared over night. If something did happen to her, he  didn’t think that  he’d be able to deal with her moping face and  droopy moods.

_ You'd _ _ be guilty, you jerk, _ his conscience threw back.

_ You'd _ _ be jealous... _ that last part had Tora flinching and clenching at his chest dramatically like the previous night.

“Say, Tora... You wouldn’t happen to know an easier way to keep an eye out for her, would you?”

Tora glanced back at the Wilkes who were eyeing him with hopeful eyes.

“What... do you mean?”

“Well, I know you’ve got some experience in this kind of thing... Cameras, audios... Tracking...” Robert blushed slightly, but  trudged right along. No need to pretend that they  weren’t aware of his past and the sort of activities  he’d bene involved with. Those were his  buddy’s specialties, but  he’d been around to help as well. He was more involved in the...physical aspect of things, the muscle.

“I might know someone...”

“You  haven't ’ happened to have a tracker on Poppy’s phone, would you?” Mary was straight to the point. “We had one on her phone from before, but she changed her phone, bought her own, and I never got around to placing one again.”

“There  are always apps like Snapchat, email services, those other apps that you download into phones and things,” Robert offered, but Tora shook his head. “What?”

“She doesn’t have any of those applications. She mostly has reading apps and Netflix. I’ve seen her phone before when I was trying to show her how to fix the settings on it...” Tora dropped his gaze for a minute before adding slowly... “And I happen to have added a little extra security setting into it...”

They  didn’t say anything. Would they be mad? Would that be too creepy?

He raised his eyes to theirs. “I’m sorry. It seemed like she was  a busy woman, always surrounded by different people. I  couldn’t always keep my eyes on her at all times , but you had entrusted her life in my care, and I wanted to make sure that I was doing my job. I didn’t mean anything...  _ strange  _ by it.”

Mary placed her hand on his arm and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “It’s  alright , Tora. We trust you and your  judgement and know that you wouldn’t do anything to endanger our daughter.”

“ That’s right, son. We trust you.” Robert clapped happily. “Now, can we go figure out where these lovebirds are at right now?”

Thirty minutes later, with his own bag of clothes, electrical devices ready, and a purpose in mind, Tora walked out of his house ready to trace Miss Poppy Wilkes and her...  _ friend _ .

He was about to throw his things into the trunk of his Mercedes when her parents came rushing out of the main house.

“What are you doing?”

“Uh, putting my stuff in the car, so I can leave?”

“Oh, no, Honey.  That’s a small car for a long trip. We have something better for you!” Mary said  excitedly as Robert reached their side. He punched in the numbers to one of the garage doors and watched it  open up to reveal another set of cars inside.

“It’s a long trip. You have to be comfortable,” Robert stated. “We’d love to go with you, but I don’t think Pops would like us tracking her down. You, however, will have no trouble staying away hidden without interacting with her, unlike us .  I know  you’re going to do  an excellent job keeping her safe and we trust you completely. So, with that said, we want you to take the Hummer.”

Tora  wasn’t much for surprises—nothing surprised him anymore—but that sure surprised even him.

He stared back, mouth hanging slightly open as he turned to the large black Hummer with silver trimmings that stood parked inside next to a shiny red Lamborghini. Even though the Wilkes tried to now be flashy, one thing that Robert was into was cars. The collection of vehicles he kept under lock and key was proof of that. He  wasn’t too  picky about the brands of cars he had. If he liked them, he bought them.

“I can’t take your Hummer.  That’s one of your babies. I know you haven’t driven them outside of the property yet!” Tora protested, but Robert waved him off.

“No, no. Tora, it’s fine.  Don’t you worry about that. Honestly,  I think it suits you better than me.” He motioned towards Tora who looked down at himself—dark jeans, white Air  Jordan's , and a black hoodie. In his mind, he looked like a  thug , reminded himself of what he used to wear around for the  Balthumans at times... But...

_ Bad thought, bad thought, bad thought. Push them away.... _

“I rather you break this baby in. You can tell me how she runs when you get back,” the older man explained fondly as he gave the black raised car a pat on the hood. “Alright, no more delays. Enjoy this trip as well you  haven’t had a vacation in a while. You  don’t have to trail her 24/7, just check on her  every once in a while . We want you to enjoy this time for yourself as well. Oh! And  don’t worry about the gas or hotels and stuff like that. Use the card we gave  you, we’ll pick up the tab later.”

“I really can’t do that!”

“This is our daughter you’re going after. Of course, we can. I know this vehicle is a gasoline chugger.  Don’t worry about it. Let it be an early graduation present and a well-deserved vacation present as well.” Mary insisted with a smile.

Tora  didn’t know how in the heck he had gotten this lucky...

“Yes, Mary has a point.”

“Alright...I promise I'll make sure your daughter stays safe,” Tora promised. “Err, what do you want me to do about that blo—guy? Quinceton? If he tries any funny business with her?”

“Run him over,” Robert  stated matter-of-factly

“Robert!” Mary gasped as she smacked him on the arm. “No. Let’s not run anyone over.” She gave her husband a glare before turning to Tora. “I’m sure that she’s responsible enough to know her limits. But... If  anything very fishy starts happening, or if you think she needs help,  then maybe you can step in. I trust your judgement.  Let’s just try to  _ not  _ run anyone over.”

With a nod, Tora agreed, even though he agreed wholeheartedly with Robert’s comment.

.

** “I  ** have a very odd feeling...”

“What do you mean?” Quincey asked he pulled into the highway again as they headed towards Fort Bragg, their first stop. He wondered if she would be okay with all the curves and whatnot.

“Like... Something dark is coming.”

“ Girl, don’t tell me that. You’re going to make me nervous!”

“No. Hahaha. I just mean, I am very sure that Tora is aware that  I'm gone by now. I know my parents won’t be following me around, but I’m not so sure about him.”

“So, what’s the deal between you and that guy, anyways?”

“What do you mean?”

“I know you have the hots for him,” Quincey started as he gave her a knowing look. “It was obvious even before we talked about it. The question is: are you worried that  he will be angry that you left with me? Not to be rude, but  it’s his loss. If he  hadn’t ignored you before, then maybe you  wouldn’t be here with me. Also, does it matter to you that much that he  knows you left with me?”

Poppy sighed. “No. It’s not that I feel bad that he’ll know. It’s more of...” She frowned and let out an angry sigh. “I know he thinks he’s like my bodyguard or something, and he’ll try to be chivalrous and come to my rescue or something. I'll bet you anything that he’s already out there somewhere on the road, tracking us. It’s not so much that he’ll be upset with me. Knowing  him and knowing what I know of your history with him, I'm more concerned about you, and what he’ll do to  _ you  _ when he finds us.”

“Well, gee, thanks. Now I feel completely at ease knowing he’s going to murder me.” Quincey shuddered as the image of Tora’s dark glare came to mind. “I guess I'll just have to enjoy this trip since it’ll be the last thing I do before I die.”

“That’s so dramatic!”

“Well, it’s true! He doesn’t like me and that is not a lie!”

“I don’t get it  though . Why would he not like you? Is it really just because you’ve seen his di—penis?” Poppy stopped herself before blurting the other word out. Blushing furiously, she took a deep breath and told herself she was a big girl, and she could have an adult conversation. “Is it really just because you’ve seen his penis? I doubt he’s a shy person, unless he cares about you telling me about how it looks like and whatnot.”

“I’m not telling you what his dick looks like, Poppy,” Quincey  stated with a chuckle. He heard the exasperated sigh from the girl sitting next to him. “Poppy! I’m not about to have a conversation about another man’s  appendage in my car, with the person who I'll be spending a couple days with, who also happens to be my possible fiancée!”

“You suck.”

“Yeah,  yeah . Why don’t you ask him about it? I’m sure he’ll gladly show you.”

“I’m not going to ask Tora to show me his penis!” Poppy gasped, her face hot. “Like, how in the hell would I do that!?”

Quincey chuckled at that, a  devious look coming over his face as he glanced over at her.

“How about, ‘Hey, Tora,  I've heard you have a nice dick. Can I draw you like one of my French girls’? That should do the trick.”

“Quincey!”

_ Poppy  _ fanned herself. How in the heck had the conversation turned to Tora’s dick?

Although, shit.  Yes , she had never seen a naked man in real life, even though she knew what they looked like, but she  couldn’t just ask Tora that.  She had taken random art classes in school, but sadly, there had been no naked men to draw. She sighed as she imagined all the lucky people that got to get an eyeful of naked Tora in Quincey’s art class.

What she  wouldn’t give to have been a fly on the wall on that class...

She snorted. The man would first resign from his position before letting her draw him naked.  Haha . It  didn’t even have to be completely naked. She just...  Did not know what she wanted.

She needed a life.

“You should text him and ask him if he would let you draw him.”

“Huh?”

“Ask him. I think it’s  a clever idea .”

“Sir, I think you’re a bad influence,” Poppy mused. “ But you know what? That  doesn’t sound like such a bad idea. Besides, he  doesn’t have to do it, it  doesn’t matter what he thinks about it.  I am tired of always being so... good with him. I’m going to do it!”

Quincey watched her out of the corner of his eye as she typed on her phone quickly, hit sent and then gave a little squeal as she waited.

.

** PING ** !

Tora eyed the message alert that popped up on the dashboard screen. New message from Poppy.

Oh!

Tora got his phone quickly and opened the message. That was weird. Was she okay? Was she safe? Why was she texting him?

“What the fu—”

He laughed. Laughed long and hard after  he had gotten over his  initial shock from the  messages she had sent him.

He threw his phone back to the passenger seat and drove on.

When he found her, they would have  a very long chat.

And that idiot Quincey would get a nice punch to that smug face of his.

** Hey, Tora? I have a question **

** Do you think you can help me with something? **

** Can I use you as a model? **

** For a nude painting? **

** Let me know. **

** Le ** ** t ** ** me draw you like one of those French Girls ;D **

**.... **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're interested, you can find me on TAPAS as well under NURSE AMETHYST, and check out "The Thin Line Between Hate and Love" (completed), "Soul on Fire" (in progress but enough chaps to read), and "Queen of Heart Break" (new)  
> I'm also on Instagram for random doodles @lamerabetty , although i've been slacking a bit on that.  
> lol  
> Thanks for reading!


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